


Child's Play

by Ysavvryl



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man Classic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, Endless Winter, Fairy Tale Curses, Family Fluff, Gen, Magic, Magical technology, Turned into Children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-05-24 17:12:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 56
Words: 339,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6160701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having saved their world many times over, the legendary Maverick Hunters X and Zero are bored. Nothing seems to be a challenge anymore. Then they encounter a reploid child who asks them to defeat two monsters. Things get even stranger from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Falling Stars

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my weirder concepts, taking a pair of androids, turning them into children, then sending them into a world with magic. And see what happens. I hope you enjoy the weirdness.

June 21, 22XX, Maverick Hunters HQ

"So we've beat Henny Penny, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey, Plucky Ducky, Foxy Loxy, Wishy Fishy, Piggly Wiggly, and Jack. So who's next?"

X chuckled. "I can't believe you said that with a straight face."

Zero finally cracked a smile. "It was tough."

During a moment of downtime, the two famous Maverick Hunters were sitting in the control room. They were meeting with the support officers, strategist, and other organizers that helped out behind the scenes of every mission. These people were immensely important even if they didn't get the recognition that the front line officers did. As both Hunters knew, their missions went smoother and more efficiently with these folks backing them up. Without them, there would be more mistakes. More mistakes was something their group did not want.

X, though, was in a sillier mood than usual. "Logically, it would be Mother Goose."

Leaning back in his seat, Zero countered with, "But we already fought a goose reploid."

"Would you guys take this seriously?" Alia said from her console. "We do have dark messages spreading around the world encouraging the reploids to destroy all human civilization."

"We've been fighting the Nursery Rhyme Gang," Zero said. "How can we take this seriously?"

"Sorry, but this has been one long strange mission," X agreed. Signas walked out of his office, so he asked, "Hey, how's Axl doing on that special assignment?"

"He's still undercover," Signas replied, "so no full report for you. But he's doing well. He'll still be away for another two or three days."

"We've got nothing to worry about him," Zero said.

X shrugged. "I just hope he keeps control over his itchy trigger finger."

Zero nodded, then watched as the computer database looked for the source of the messages. He yawned. "I dunno about you, but I'm bored."

"I'm working as fast as I can," Alia said.

He shook his head. "Not this waiting game, I meant this whole scenario. Everything's been so easy lately; I haven't had a decent challenge in years."

"Don't tempt fate," Signas warned. "You might get more than you wished for."

"Hah, like that could happen."

"I've got it!" Alia called. "The message source is Ikari Tower in Death Valley."

X came over and looked. "Seriously? But that's a giant mechatree."

"It does have satellite beacons, for taking readings of the atmosphere and sunlight, then broadcasting them to research universities. But you remember, the place is very secure. In order to hijack the beacons, you'd have to overthrow the entire tree's security. Or infect it."

"You two be careful," Signas said. "But take care of this quickly."

* * *

Ikari Tower looked exactly like a gigantic sequoia tree alone in the middle of the desert. One could see its brilliant green leaves from miles away. In truth, it was a living utilities plant, providing clean energy, water, and air to people for miles around. The two Hunters took an elevator on the side to the beacons' platform.

X leaned on a post. "This elevator is slow. If I had a moment, I would have brought along my book chip."

Zero smiled and shook his head. "A book on a mission? You're such a geek sometimes."

"Is there a problem with that?" he asked teasingly.

"I guess not. So there's a few machines up top, but most rooms and labs are underground?"

"Right. You're not supposed to be able to get in the root system or in the elevator unless you have security access. Someone on the inside was helping Sigma; they even have the advanced firewall in place here."

"So how would he infect it?"

After a moment's consideration, he replied, "Only by using passwords to shut down the firewall."

Zero nodded. "I see. So how many make out spots are there?"

X rolled his eyes, but knew he was being teased. "I told you, I'm not dating Alia."

"Oh please, I know you want to."

"She'd talk my ear off if I did take her on a date. I couldn't stand that."

"She does that anyways."

"That's true."

Zero looked at the trunk as they climbed. "So how safe is this elevator? Sigma could just crash it while we're in here."

"That wouldn't be dramatic. It's not Sigma's style to use a non-dramatic plan."

"Practical warfare beats dramatic warfare any day."

"That's why he never wins. That, and he's evil."

"You would say that."

"Besides, the elevator's on safety rails. If the rails are messed with in any way, the elevator won't work. It can't be crashed."

The elevator stopped and opened to a spiral staircase. Leaves the size of dinner plates moved in the slightest breeze. "Shall we go kick his ass again?"

X followed Zero out. "You know, if Signas were listening, he'd tell us to stop the chatter and do our mission."

"Secretly, I like radio blockades." They both laughed.

The spiral staircase went up for three stories. There were some enemies on the path, but nothing worrisome. And as expected, Sigma was waiting at the beacon platform. X looked around for traps; there would be traps. But there were so many leaves around them that it was difficult to see beyond this little 'room'. He did notice how the platform was made. Large steel bars made up a grid. Resting on the grid was a sheet of chain-link mesh, so light could filter to leaves below while people could work on the beacons. However, some sections of mesh were missing, leaving gaping holes to a thousand foot drop. Reploids could survive heavy damage, but a thousand foot drop was hard for anything to survive.

Sigma was smug. "My plan to lure you up for your destruction has worked perfectly."

Zero groaned. "Is that it? You went to all that trouble, overtaking a secured network, spamming the entire world net, just to get us up here? Good grief; you could have gotten the same effect by just calling us on the telephone and saying, 'Hey dimwits, meet me on top of Ikari Tower in one hour'. Would've been a lot faster too."

He was caught off guard by this response. "Well..."

X elbowed Zero. "Hey, don't give him ideas like that. We wouldn't get paid for doing that."

"Oh, right. Never mind then. What idiotic plan for killing us do you have now? Not that it matters, as it won't work."

"What's gotten into you?" Sigma asked.

"He is right," X said. "This game is getting a little old. How many times do you have to die in order to realize that you're not right?"

"Meaning, your plans are stupid."

Sigma fumed. "They are not. This one is guaranteed to..." he was cut off by a sudden flash of light. It was like someone had tried teleporting to Sigma's exact location. Sigma was thrown down one of the gaping holes. But the light remained longer than a typical teleport.

"Lumine again?" Zero asked quietly.

But it wasn't Lumine. The light disappeared, leaving a child-like reploid with blue armor, black hair that was slightly blue, and green eyes. The child looked amazingly like X, only three foot high. He looked down in the hole Sigma had fallen through, rather worried. "Oops. I wasn't supposed to hurt anyone."

Zero smiled. "I don't think anyone would mind, kiddo."

The child turned around, startled, but then looked relieved. "Oh good, I did find you. I was worried... this is an odd place."

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" X asked kindly.

"I, um, I'd explain, but I don't have a lot of time to do this. See, um... I'm in trouble. A lot of trouble. I was hoping you'd help me."

"We were in the middle of something," Zero said, "but it seems you took care of that for us."

"We'll help anyone we can. What's your problem?"

The child looked relieved. "See, in my world..."

"Your world?"

He nodded. "I'm from another world. There's this monster... two of them, actually, two monsters that are going to fight over my world. They could destroy every living thing if they do fight. But before they do that, my friend and I... the monsters are going to kill us first."

"Monsters, huh? We can fight monsters."

X scratched his head. "What sort of monsters? And we need to know more about you."

But the child only heard Zero's comment. "Great. Come with me."

"To your world?"

The child raised his hands, and everything turned white.

* * *

Sigma leapt up through the hole; some branches had stopped his fall. "All right, what's going on here? Huh?"

He said this to someone new to him. This person... human or reploid? Sigma wasn't sure, and he could usually tell right away. He looked hominoid, with snow white hair, pale skin, gray eyes, and a long black cloak. But something was off about him, something that made him not-quite-human. He was looking up. "Exactly what I thought would happen. It was a brave effort. But it puts us right in the middle of perversion of originality."

Sigma was about to ask who, and what, the stranger was, but then he turned. "You're the guy who built this Tower. Ikari Domino."

Ikari nodded. "That's right."

"But you're supposed to be some hermit."

"If you wish to call me that. You ought to follow them, you know."

"Them? But..."

"Sometimes to fight a corruption, one must go along with it." Ikari raised one hand and a black glow surrounded him. "I'll show you the way."

Everything turned black.

* * *

June 21, XX54

It was a cold snowy day... when wasn't it snowy around here? The people working in the snowfield were well prepared. The reploids all wore an extra set of armor to keep their internal temperatures stable and keep out the wet. The humans all wore warm layers of clothing under a special suit designed to keep out the wet, wind, and some forms of magic. The cyber elves usually stayed in the armor or clothing of their bond partners, only coming out if they were really needed. Everyone would have liked to be inside, in safety and warmth, but this was an important task.

"Dr. Ciel!" one of the last groups working called out. "We've broke through the ice."

Ciel came over in her snowshoes and peered through. "What've you got?"

"Hang on," a muffled voice came from inside, "there's a lot in here."

"I've got you," the reploid who'd called her over said. He fired off another Fire Pillar, then physically yanked off another section of silver colored ice. "There, now you don't have to squeeze yourself back out."

"Thanks," the human inside answered. His heavy boots made loud metallic echoes. "I see lots of damage on the outside, but not inside. But this caravan went through one helluva fight."

Ciel went inside the truck. They knew this caravan had gotten unlucky enough to encounter the Ice Dragon. They knew that before they found it. But upon inspecting the trucks and remains, the battle had been much worse. There was damage from plasma-type weapons, damage from spells (where the elements were not just ice, but fire, earth, and electric), and damage from lesser monsters. Something had gone terribly wrong here.

"Any bodies in here?" she asked.

"None so far."

A small ball of light darted out of Ciel's suit. Croire paused, then flew right for a box. " _Miss Ciel, there's something powerful here."_

"Okay, I'll be up there in a sec."

She climbed onto the boxes while Croire unsealed the box. Inside were many layers of protective foam. Ciel pulled off the first layer and found a beautiful statue of an angel decorated with gold leaf and gemstones. Carefully, she lifted the angel up and found an inscription on the bottom. 'Hope, Rasia Angelica Cathedral, Kykital.'

"What've you got?" the human asked.

"The Angels of the Virtues. They look intact. So this confirms that this was the last caravan from Kykital."

"I'm not finding anyone in here, which means we're still short a few bodies. They would have reported a death before they left."

Ciel nodded. "Right. The Ice Dragon doesn't eat her victims, as far as we know, but there were some predators... but they could still be out there."

There was a crash as a particularly large section of silver ice came off. "But it's been three months; they couldn't survive that long."

"You don't get it," the human said. "The ones missing are Neko, Xenophon, and Star Guise. Snow Patrol members. If anyone could survive this long, they could."

" _Zero would survive snow,"_ Croire said. But of course, only Ciel could hear her.

"Still, it's got to be hard," the reploid said. "Even for a legendary hero."

Ciel shut the box with the Angels in it. "I'll send some others out to help you pack up all these boxes. We've got to search the surrounding area for them now."

"Thanks."

She came out and Croire went back into her pocket. She'd have to order a second inspection of the entire battle site, just in case someone missed the bodies. But she didn't think those three had died. The two reploids were highly trained and the cyber elf with them was quite powerful. And Neko had come back from certain death situations before. So yes, if anyone could survive three months in the snowfields, it'd be them. But where would they be? Did they decide to camp somewhere, or to try making it to a SP fort on foot?

And what was she going to tell Sonya Chi Guise now? Ciel had promised her friend she'd find her missing husband. She'd found the group, but not Sonya's husband.

At their camp, she looked around for an idle group. "Jacobs, Hirondelle, Laguna, you three go to truck E and help them unload. They've got almost a full load."

"Yes, m'am," two of them said.

Hirondelle, an old friend of Ciel's, pointed up at the sky. "Look up there. There's three stars out."

Laguna, a new friend of Ciel's, looked and shivered. "Three bright new stars in the daytime sky, on the solstice no less. It's a strange omen... they're coming down."

Ciel looked up in time to see one of the new stars fall to the west. The other two went southeast. That was odd. She thought of another time she'd watched falling stars, and of the Angel of Hope. She wished she could see Neko again.

* * *

June 21, XX54  
Monsteropolis

Sonya Chi Guise twisted her wedding band around her finger. On her forehead, she wore a white band of mourning. She wondered how her friend Ciel was doing and if she'd found the caravan yet. Hopefully there would be news about her husband. Good news.

Sonya was a mermaid reploid; at least, she had been. But for her beloved Star, she came out of the water and was transformed into an amphibious reploid. She still looked mermaid-ish, with bright orange hair, gauzy orange and yellow fins, an orange tail that had been transformed into a skirt of sorts, and her gills which were still on her neck. Life on land was okay, but Sonya would prefer to be underwater again. Only, all the nearby bodies of water were frozen solid.

"Sonya, I need your help," a voice came from the hallway.

"Coming, Miss Roll." She got up and left the office.

Roll Light was the first female reploid, having been upgraded from a mere robot. She appeared like a human woman in her early twenties, with grass green eyes and corn blond hair in a braid. Currently, she was wearing a red blouse and blue jeans. She looked at Sonya and her expression warmed. "Oh, but if you're not feeling well... I might be able to get one of the other refugees."

For a moment, Sonya wanted to agree. But then she shook her head. "No, I'm... I probably should be doing things."

"I know it must be hard on you. But if you don't mind, I've picked up some new tables for the conference room, the dens, and the great room. They need to be brought in and assembled, but first we need to get the old tables dissembled and taken to the truck"

"Okay." The two women got to work.

The Light family estate had been passed along many generations. The house grew and expanded until it was five stories high with two large additions on either side. And then the last human owner, Dr. Thomas Light, had expanded downward, adding five layers of basements to create one of the most sophisticated research labs in the world, even now, thirty years after his death. Thomas had created the reploid race, which was now over seventy years old. When he died, he left his estate not to his human descendants, but to his three reploid descendants, Roll, Rock, and Blues. Rock and Blues were gone most of the time, though, leaving Roll to do whatever she wished with the expansive building.

It was much too large for a single person to live in, as well as expensive to upkeep. So Roll devised a business plan. She rented the basement labs out to scientists, wizards, or research groups, who were willing to pay whatever she asked for them. As for the upper portion, she turned that into a country inn. At least, it should have been a country inn. Monsteropolis had grown in the years since Dr. Light's death; where it had once been surrounded by trees, the estate was now surrounded by buildings taller than itself. Roll had managed to keep her inn/lab/home a private building instead of public.

Sonya had moved in four months ago, when she had fled Kykital after its shields fell. A city without a shield was helpless. Other refugees were living here as well. Most had made it out alive, but the last caravan had never made it here. Star had been in that caravan, along with his Snow Patrol friends Neko and Xenophon. They were all trained to survive the wilderness, but the dangers were many. Sonya had hope they would come back safely.

Still, what if she never heard from them again?

Sonya worked slowly, thinking all this. Roll understood and didn't bother her too much. She was such a sweet and kind woman; no wonder every other female reploid looked up to her as a good example of how to live one's life. There was once though, when Sonya was outside putting a dismantled table into the truck and pulling out a new table's box. Roll tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the sky. "Look, Chi, there's stars out."

She looked up and saw three stars where they shouldn't be, when they shouldn't be. Two darted off south quickly. The third grew brighter and brighter, until it rushed right over their heads and through the streets. Roll ran over to the street to look and listen. The star simply vanished without a sound.

Roll scratched her head as Sonya came over. "Odd. There doesn't seem to be any damage. I hope nobody got hurt."

"I hope that wasn't a bad omen." Because she'd wished Star would come back to her.

* * *

David Cain looked back at the sky. Three stars in the middle of the day, on the summer solstice no less. Some believed falling stars to be omens, and those three were conspicuously unique. In the next few days, there'd be all sorts of predictions of doom and hope. David was suspicious of prophecy, though. Sure, there could be omens and signs, but they were hopelessly vague and hard to interpret. He preferred to ignore that 'art'. David was more worried that the star had crashed into the wall and left a gaping hole in the city's defenses. He didn't want Monsteropolis to turn into another Kykital.

His radio beeped. "Sir, we have tracked the local star's flight path. We're waiting on the Snow Patrol's report on the other two."

"Fine, send it to me."

"You're not going to like this."

A few seconds later, David's wristband computer projected a three dimensional map of Monsteropolis. The star's path was genuinely odd. It came in from the southern part of the city almost straight down, but then altered its path to a gentler slope. It came to a total stop in the old Downtown area, about five stories off the ground. Then it went east one block, changed its mind, then went north. After that, it went east, north, west, west, south, east, south, west, north, east twenty blocks, then north straight for the wall. If it hit the wall or beyond, it would have done so in sector 35.

David frowned, then looked back to the east. He would have seen or heard an explosion. He'd been in that area not that long ago and had left his two sons over there...

His sons!

David ran.

* * *

June 21, XX54  
Cyberspace

Sigma felt strange. Everything was still black, and his systems tingled. It was almost like coming into close contact with the true Zero virus. There was something in the old texts about dark energy. Did that have anything to do with this?

Finally, something materialized. But an odd something: a floating walkway made up of large tiles. It was about six feet wide and three inches deep. The walkway twisted and turned, met itself, formed some open squares, and had dead ends all over. Some of the dead ends were finished with an arch, sort of like an electronic door. While most of the tiles were blue, the ones he was standing on or near were red.

"Odd place," he said quietly to himself. He looked out at the darkness. Every now and then, a streak of colored light zipped by. There were also rainbow colored bubbles.

Well, he'd best find something to infect, so he could figure out where he was. He spotted a terminal fifteen feet ahead. As he walked towards it, more tiles turned red. Before he could figure out this strange behavior, a bubble floated right up to him. Sigma started to brush it away, but then saw someone in the bubble. Not a reflection of himself, but someone who looked familiar. He couldn't think of who, so Sigma tried to capture the bubble for examination.

The bubble squealed and shot away from him. Seconds later, an alarm sounded. Teleport flashes appeared as this place brought in its security, which was made up of the oddest looking mechaniloids Sigma had ever seen. He knew mettaurs; there were plenty of those. There were also mini-tanks, cylinders with faces and giant propellers, rabbits with one large fused foot, and a few plunger/spring/helicopter things that stomped every time they touched the ground.

"What kind of joke is this?" Sigma asked with a sneer. He activated his plasma blade and fired off several rounds of Crescent Wave. This killed almost all the security mechaniloids in one shot each. It also turned every tile affected red.

Sigma turned back to the terminal and infected it. But the information it was giving didn't make sense. It was storing basic knowledge: spelling, history, geography, and math. It did give him one useful piece of information. It told him that the security forces were taking orders through one of the archways. If he followed the orders, he could find the master of this place.

Good, that would make things faster. He shut off security in this area. Everything turned red, from the light flashes in the blackness to the archways. The rainbow colored bubbles all squealed and got away.  
After touching the archway, the pathway vanished, then was replaced. It was arranged differently. This time, there was a long perimeter path, a few side paths with terminals, and one large path in the center. But that path was blocked by three flashing blocks approximately six foot by six foot by six foot each.  
Sigma tracked the orders with another terminal and found the source beyond the flashing blocks. He went to examine those blocks. They didn't seem very substantial.

'Three layer pass code required for entry,' the front block warned him.

"I don't need no stinking pass code," Sigma replied. He charged his saber with the virus. This shattered the lock blocks easily, allowing him to pass through the supposedly secure arch.

When this new area formed, it wasn't a path like the others. It was a large square of tiles, about fifty by fifty. There were pretty flowering trees and decorative tiles with stars. There was a fountain in the center making a peaceful background noise. There was a reploid sitting on the edge of the fountain. He was an odd one, though. He had light brown hair, wasn't quite four feet high, had child-like facial features, and odd tattoos, like blue triangles around his eyes. In fact, he looked like Sigma if he had ever been a child.

The child-like Sigma looked at the adult Sigma, startled. "What are you doing here? It's supposed to be safe here."

Sigma walked up to him. "I'd like to know that myself. What have you done with me?"

"I-I-I, I did nothing wrong! My dad said I could be there today, promise." He quivered.

Sigma crossed his arms and looked at the child critically. "I was never such a chicken. Now tell me the truth."

"I don't know. Really! No one else is supposed to be in here without my permission."

He held up his saber threateningly. "Tell me..."

The child jumped into the fountain. "Greater spirits, please protect me!"

Instantly, two adults appeared. One appeared to be X. Maybe. He wasn't wearing his helmet, but was wearing a golden crown. His base armor was different and he was wearing a white cloak over it. His facial features weren't quite right and his hair was the wrong semi-black. Like he was a sloppy imposter. The other appeared to be Dr. Cain.

"Leave this place now, dark spirit," the X imposter said.

Cain stayed by the fountain. "Leave my son alone. Go in peace or we will forcibly evict you."

"You can't force me to do anything."

Sigma struck at the X imposter. He dodged, put his hands to his lips, and began muttering something. Cain snapped his fingers and formed a faint white shield around the fountain. Sigma struck at X again, this time vaporizing him.

Did he really just vanish? Sigma wasn't sure what to think. Keeping an eye out for sneaky backhanded tricks, he attacked the white shield. It shattered, taking Cain with it. No, that was far too easy.

There was a buzzing sound. The remaining blue tiles all turned red. The decorative tiles erased their stars and replaced them with Sigma's sign. The flowering trees all grew razor-sharp leaves and poisonous blossoms. And the fountain began to spew blood instead of water.

The child Sigma scrambled out of the fountain quickly when it did that. The tile he got out on turned blue. He looked confused, as if he felt his defenses should have lasted longer too.

The adult Sigma grabbed the child by the collar. "Now you tell me what's going on."

The child said nothing, but his eyes expressed terror.

* * *

June 21, XX54  
Monsteropolis

"Hey kid, you all right?"

Kid? Sigma blinked and realized his situation had suddenly changed. Instead of looking at his child self being afraid, he was looking at a mass of white, gray, and blue. He smelled rock salt and water. He was cold and wet.

"Sigma!" someone called. He sounded an awful lot like Dr. Cain. But, wasn't he long dead and recently vaporized? What was going on?

"He's down here, David."

"How is he?"

"He got knocked out, dad, but he's alive."

David, dad? Sigma sat up to figure the voices out. He was in a large pile of snow. The one who sounded like Cain also looked like Cain; this one was David. There was a teenager sitting by him, who also looked similar to Cain. Roger, his mind named this teen. There was a third human, but he was unfamiliar in every way. He looked at the three of them, and to his own surprise, started crying. "Daddy!"

David hugged him. "Thank goodness. How do you feel?"

Sigma scolded himself silently for acting so stupidly, but it was as if he had little control. He tried to gain that control. "I, I don't know... it just happened. What happened?"

"You got star struck," the stranger said cheerfully.

"There's a... I feel some strange energy."

His father let him go and looked him closely in the eyes. "You're right; there is some unusual energy in your systems. I'll have to give you a thorough checkup at home."

Wait, how did he know that just by looking into his eyes? Should he be using scanning equipment to find that out? Sure, certain reploids could diagnose problems by checking another's eyes. But that was reploids. Humans couldn't do that kind of thing.

David looked to the stranger and his other son. "Did you two see what happened to that star?"

"It crashed right into him. We both saw that, right Roger?"

The teen nodded. "Yeah, appeared out of nowhere and smacked him in the head. But there was no explosion or anything. It was a silent hit; all I heard was Sigma falling into the snow pile."

"There isn't a trace of it left, believe me. If there is, it's in that snow."

"I'm not sure what to make of that," David said.

"Hey dad, what happened to those other two stars we saw?"

Two... so there were three falling stars? Sigma immediately thought of the Maverick Hunters. He recalled them talking to someone while he had been trying to get back up to the mechatree's maintenance platform. But then they had disappeared by the time he got back up.

David shrugged. "Haven't heard. They fell somewhere to the south. The Snow Patrol is trying to locate someone closer to that crash site. We'll figure it out eventually. Do you think you can walk, Sigma?"

"Of course." He stood up and figured out that he was about 47 inches high. There was no sign of his armor or cape. Instead, he was wearing a colorful knitted cap, a plush coat, and snow boots. He was exactly the same as the child he'd just been threatening. On the plus side, he was no longer bald. Otherwise, it was negatives all the way.

David took his right hand and walked with him. Roger followed close behind. Sigma looked over a short blue-gray wall to his left and saw a large open plain with snow to the horizon. There were some trees out there, but unless they were evergreens, they were dead. He looked to his right side and saw that they were actually on a wall. Like a castle's perimeter, this wall was protecting a large city from the outside world. He looked back at the snowy outside world and realized there was something else odd.

There was a translucent film starting from this wall and going over the city. He could only see it where the sun's light refracted just right to form an oily rainbow. And the shield and the world beyond, they both had a strange feel to them. Sigma wasn't sure what to call it. It was like the aura put off by the Zero-type viruses, only not as aggressive.

Roger tapped his shoulder. "Hey little brother, what is it?"

How dare some human call him that? Sigma kept his temper. "What's what?"

"You had that look on your face. You're feeling something."

"Magic of ice and snow." Magic? Now he wasn't making sense again. "I don't know."

"The Ice Dragon's magic does rise and fall," David said. "But our protective shield is strong and constant. Monsteropolis is safe, don't worry. It's just easiest to feel the dark magic outside from the wall." He squeezed his hand. "This is why we don't normally allow citizens up here."

"Okay, dad." He had to push himself to say that. But he was ignorant right now, so the best thing was to try fitting in until he knew what was going on.

Roger tweaked his ear. "Ease up, Sigma. You should thank the greater spirits that the star didn't kill you. You got very lucky." He winked. "Either that, or you have a destiny written in the stars."

"Roger," David tried to warn, but he wound up chuckling.

Stars and destiny. Perhaps this was a superstitious place. In that case, "You have to find out what happened to those other two stars."

"And why's that?"

"They are a sign."

David nodded. "They could be. But will we read them right?"

"Aw, you're no fun dad," Roger teased.

He remained insistent on denial, which was good for him. Not so good for Sigma. "Prophecy is a serious matter, but it's vague. We must be careful; I don't want either of you following some tragic self-fulfilling prophecy. Anyway, let's get back home and check you out. Then we'll make some hot cocoa. How's that sound?"

"That'd be great," Roger said.

It took him a second, but Sigma smiled at them. "Yeah, great."


	2. Shadow Palace

June 21, XX54  
Forbidden Mountains

Out in the Forbidden Mountains, Rock, Blues, and Ska investigated Ikari Tower. It was a tower formed to look like a gigantic dead tree, its trunk pitch black and its leaves steel gray with sharp edges. Blues stepped out of the way before a sharp leaf fell on him and cracked his skull plates open. Earlier, he'd tried using his shield to block the deadly litter; now his shield had three large cracks and one sharp leaf stuck firmly in it. Still, they continued their survey. "I'm not finding an entrance anywhere. There's an elevator on the other side, but I don't think it's working."

Rock was staring up the tree trunk. He'd been there last Blues saw him. Although he was still, none of the leaves were hitting him. Rock didn't seem to notice he was being spoken to.

Ska was Blues' cyber elf partner. He had a peculiar burnt orange aura. Blues could feel an occasional brush of Ska's wings on his neck. " _I don't like this evil place,"_ he spoke finally.

"I don't like it either," Blues replied. He walked up to Rock and touched his shoulder. His brother blinked, so he was alive. "Rock, do you remember how to reach the entrance?"

"This is the place," Rock said.

Blues shook his shoulder. "Hey, are you okay? Do you need to leave?"

As his eyes seemed to be unfocused, there was a chance he was attempting to scan the place with magic. "There is someone inside."

"Is it him?"

"I don't know. I don't remember. There's too many shadows, too many signs of hatred, despair, rotting souls..."

Blues yanked Rock away from the Tower. "Rock, snap out of it!"

He put his hand over his forehead, then turned away. "Thanks Blues."

"Come on, let's go back. You've obviously been here too long."

"Okay." He walked away, although his brother's persistence was all that let him do that.

Ska fluttered over to sit on Rock's shoulder instead. " _You should be careful, Master Rock. There was great hatred there, although I couldn't sense anyone in particular_." Unfortunately, elves could only be understood by those who knew the Elf tongue or their bonded partner. All Rock could hear were little bells.

"He senses the same hatred you do," Blues translated. "He's as worried as I am about you."

"We have to go underground if we wish to enter. The ground entrance won't appear unless he wants us to find him. But this is..." he sighed.

The two adult reploids went back to their hidden campsite. If they stayed too long, Rock might stand there mesmerized until his inner workings froze or one of the inhabitants found and killed him. Rock took being led away as passively as he had stood looking at the cursed tree. He was a completely different person from the reploid who, twenty-five years ago, chased Dr. Wily through an unknown portal to end his madness once and for all. As for what happened after that, well, Blues didn't know. He had stayed at the entrance of the portal trying to keep Wily's warriors from following. Rock vanished for three months and when he came back, he was cursed.

He looked at the sky, wondering if he would ever find a reversal to his brother's condition. He noticed some strange sparkles. "Hey Rock, look at that. Three stars out in the day."

"Stars?" Rock looked up, blankness soon turning to fear. "Watch out, they're coming down!"

Ska squealed and hid in Blues' armor. Both reploids ducked as two of the three stars came down right at the Forbidden Mountains. They flew past Ikari Tower, made a 180 degree turn, then shot off horizontally. A white circle gate appeared and seemed to swallow the two stars.

The two brothers got up. Ska came out. " _Those weren't evil stars_ ," he said. " _But they were very strange ones_."

"Very strange," Blues replied. He started up his satellite connection, in order to contact the nearest fort. "I wonder what happened to that third star."

Rock stared at the circle gate. A little Shadow Imp appeared, looked around, then shrieked in its incoherent language as the gate shut itself. "Shadow Palace?"

"The third went to Shadow Palace?"

"No, those two went into there. They went to the birthplace of all curses and nightmares by way of this twisted tree."

On the other hand, he could call later. Blues took Rock's hand and tugged him along. "Come on, let's hurry back to camp. Ska, would you try calming him down?"

"H _e needs the crystal's calm, but I'll sing_." Ska went back to Rock's shoulder.

Rock shivered despite his Master Wizard's cloak. "These times are dark; they're about to get darker."

* * *

 

?  
Shadow Palace

The command room was furnished with purple polka-dotted upholstery. Otherwise, it looked like the usual technological headquarters, with many computer stations, a large four-dimensional projection ring, and small cleaning drones. Well, there were also several painted vases with orchid arrangements. There was a shadow elf happily setting fire to flies. And there was a full service bar and kitchen with several drones who could create any delicacy one desired. Never mind those military outfits; this was how a command room should be.

The sole reploid in the room sipped at a martini and watched the security footage. Not that much ever happened here. This was a nice soft job with respectability and power. Although it was easy, he rather liked being the complete master of this place...

His eyes caught some unexpected movement in one hallway. Was that someone who wasn't supposed to be in his palace? He got angry and almost sent the security forces out to deal with the trespasser. But then he checked the next hall camera and realized who it was.

Copy X smiled cruelly. "You should have never tried to escape."

* * *

 

There was a continual crackling, as if the room was on fire. Surprised at his own lack of concern, Zero sat up and looked around. He was on a red sand beach alongside an enormous lake of fire. There was a cavern wall overhead, with glittering crystals and glassy surfaces. While it was sort of beautiful, it was also sort of fearsome.

Someone was chanting. The voice was high-pitched, like a child's. Getting up, Zero followed the voice. He came upon a walkway going out over the fire lake. It connected to a raised platform with a design on it. Although he couldn't see it well, the design disturbed Zero. The child was on the platform, reading his chant out of a book. He was wearing an oversized brown cloak with the hood up.

At that point, Zero spotted movement in the fire lake. Moments later, a blood red dragon appeared. It rose out of the lake and began circling the cavern ceiling. Its eyes looked hungry.

The first child they had seen mentioned two monsters that were going to kill him and a friend before battling and destroying the world. This second child was reading some unintelligible chant. The dragon looked quite hungry and came to the invitation.

Zero ran up the steps. "Hold on, don't finish that!"

Startled, the child spun around and looked at him. His hood fell down. Zero felt a moment of bewilderment and horror when he looked down at the child's face and saw his own looking back up at him.

* * *

 

? ? ?  
Shadow Palace

Zero woke up in a room with awful carpeting. It was thin, rough, an ugly orange-brown, and covered five sides of this room. The sixth side was one of the walls, which was made up entirely of glass blocks covered in heavy ice. There was also a single door and a large leafy plant in a pot he couldn't put his arms around.

He got up and looked around the plant, but he was alone. "X, where are you?" He frowned. "Something isn't right here."

For one, his voice seemed different. He wasn't quite sure how. For another, the door was way too big. If that was a normal size door, than he was only three feet tall. Maybe that's why the plant seemed so big.

He could be dreaming. But this didn't feel like the dream of the lake of fire he had just moments ago. He could be hallucinating under reconstruction. That happened a lot, but normally dealt with past memories. This was a new place to him. This could be some amusement park funhouse. But why would he be here?

Zero heard a faint sound on the other side of the glass wall. He turned to it and realized the wall was reflecting very well. One problem, though: it showed Zero as if he were a small child.

Before he could consider this, he heard the sound again. Roller skates, he thought. Someone on roller skates was approaching this wall very fast. He backed up in time for that someone to crash through the block wall, revealing a warm sunny flower garden beyond. But what about that ice? Maybe he was dreaming.

The 'someone on roller skates' was a rabbit reploid who stood not much taller than Zero was now. He had gray-brown fur that somehow managed to be uglier than the carpet. He was also covered in dust, old hairs, and unidentifiable clumps. Sending clouds of dust everywhere, he hopped up on his skates and shook loose glass off him. "Ah-ha, caught you now silly boy. Now I'll thrash you good."

Zero sneezed. "Who are you and what do you want with me?"

"Don't play stupid. You insulted me."

"How? I don't remember you."

"You just called me the Easter Bunny, you nitwit!"

"You're too ugly to be the Easter Bunny."

"That's it! I'm the proud Dust Bunny King, and I will make you suffer." He pulled out a beam saber and activated it. But it wasn't a normal beam saber. It was brown and drew dust particles to it.

"Dust Bunny King? Man, and here I thought Wishy Fishy had a stupid name."

"Grr, stupid name? What about your numerical idiocy? Come on, Zero? It's like you're destined to be a loser." He hopped forward and tried to down-slice him.

Zero got out of the way. "You shouldn't have challenged me." He tried activating his Z-saber, but got a toy broom instead. It was about his size, had a neon orange handle, lime green bristles, and three copper stars on ribbons tied to the top. Zero stared at it for a moment. "What the...?"

"Hah, you're going to fight me with a toy?" He tried hitting Zero again, and missed when he dodged. "Hilarious."

"I don't get it," Zero said aloud. "Brooms aren't good for anything except cleaning... and... getting rid of dust bunnies..."

This made the Dust Bunny King pause. "Um..." he sped off into the garden.

"Come back here! I'm gonna sweep you to death!"

The dust bunny was much faster than Zero, but kept crashing into things. After several such crashes, Zero caught up and smacked the Dust Bunny King with the unwieldy broom. For a moment, he was blinded by the plumes of dust and sneezed many times. When it cleared, the Dust Bunny King was gone and Zero had his dusty brown weapon.

Zero examined it, then wondered why he'd been so worried. This beam saber had a power rating of 1, where his Z-saber in normal conditions had a power rating of 255. It had a mid-level deflection, no damage stacking, and a stun mode. In fact, it was in stun mode, and Zero could tell that it would only do stun damage unless he figured out the actual fighting mode. "Dang it."

"It's something, at least," a voice above him said.

Zero felt strange. That sounded exactly like his normal voice in recordings. He looked up and... was that himself as an adult? No, not quite. This reploid's armor was noticeably different and his face wasn't quite right. There was a small ball of white light by his side. The ball of light flew down in front of Zero and began jingling like small bells. It was weird, but there was someone inside the light who looked an awful lot like X, except in white armor with a gold cross and dragonfly wings. He was only two inches tall. "Huh?"

"He's asking who you are. We saw you run by some time ago and thought we recognized..."

"Stop talking to the illusions, guys," a miserable voice said. This came from another reploid, this one chained to the wall. He had silver hair, black skin, and black armor with small white crystals imbedded in it. He shuddered. "This place is horrible."

The one that almost looked like his adult self seemed to be stuck to the ceiling somehow. "You'll have to forgive him; he's had a rough time. So who are you?"

"I'm Zero."

He closed his eyes. "Thank goodness. I'm glad to see you well."

"I'm not an illusion, although I am having a very strange day. Who are you guys?"

"I'm Neko. That's my cyber elf friend Xenophon in front of you, and over there is Star Guise."

"What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story and this is a dangerous place. Do you think you could cut the chains off Star? I think from there, we can find a way to get me down."

"Those chains? But this sword is..."

Xenophon interrupted with a flurry of jingles. Neko translated, "The Dusty Blade is better than it seems. Go on and try it."

But before Zero took a step close, they all heard a scream.

* * *

 

? ? ?  
Shadow Palace

X woke up in a funky room. It had green shag carpet, beaded curtains, three lava lamps, a psychedelic bed set, and a window on the ceiling. The child that looked like him was in the window. X got up to speak with him, then realized that was a mirror up there. It was reflecting him as the child.

He looked down at his hands and realized it was correct. How did that happen? Had something gone wrong? He had a sense that something had gone very wrong, but couldn't figure out what.

Getting off the bed, he checked the room out. All the doors were shut. There was no one with him. There was no one under the bed. "Zero? Where are you?" He rubbed his throat at hearing his voice, even higher pitched than normal. "Child, what happened?" he asked quietly.

There was no reaction. X went to check the nearest door. It opened into outer space. Stars dotted the blackness and a large Saturn-like planet was in the center of his vision. X shut that door quickly, then checked the room again. It was the same psychedelic decor. He tried to make sense out of that, but couldn't.

He checked the center door. It opened into a closet. A nice normal closet, although it didn't go with the room. There were six pairs of black leather shoes, identical. There were twelve perfectly pressed white shirts, twelve creaseless black pants, and twelve suit coats with varying pinstripe patterns. No doubt, this closet didn't belong to the person who owned this bedroom.

He didn't shut the closet door when he went to open the last door. This opened into a hallway, which didn't match the bedroom or the closet. The hallway was made of brown stone and had medieval tapestries hanging on the walls. Banners with an odd coat of arms hung from the lofty ceiling. The coat of arms was made up of two scraggily black creatures around a triangle around the all-seeing eye.  
X felt the hairs on his neck stand up, like some enemy was behind him.

He turned quickly, but the room still hadn't changed. Visually, anyhow. It smelled horrible now, like rank goat cheese. The smell was strongest from the closet.

In the closet was some... thing, which looked like a large blob of old soft cheese. Five eye stalks stood four inches high; each held a bloodshot eye. It had three nostrils. At least, X assumed they were nostrils. An oozy brown substance dribbled out and crusted the edges. The five eyes all turned to X as one and the cheese blob grinned. At that point, he could see that it had tiny but sharp teeth. Thousands of them. "Hello, little boy," it said in a gooey sort of voice.

X felt disgusted more than anything. "What are you?"

"Isn't it obvious, X? A closet monster, the bane of all children like you."

"Closet monster? You're more like a scientifically curious specimen of mold."

"You're braver than most. Haven't you heard that all closet monsters love to eat children? They are the sweetest of snacks."

X felt a little afraid, but he could always deal with small amounts of fear. "Sorry, I'm a reploid, not a human. You'll have to find someone else to scare."

"I know. You won't believe how much work it took to devise a metal digesting acid. But it was worth it. I like reploid children more than human children now." It grinned hungrily.

"Go away." X slammed the closet door shut.

He walked out to the medieval hallway. There were several doors in his field of vision, as well as adjacent hallways. Which way to go? He heard a slurping sound behind him. X jumped ahead and turned to face back. The closet monster was in the bedroom doorway. "You can't get away that easily," the closet monster taunted.

"You don't scare me," X said, although he was getting nervous.

"So you say." The closet monster sprang forward with surprising speed. It tackled X, pushing him to the ground. X scrambled away, gagging from the immense horrible smell.

He activated his arm buster. "Now you're asking for it." He fired. A yellow Nerf ball shot out of X's buster. It bounded off the monster's hide, hit a wall, then bounced over to X's feet. After being still for a second, the ball popped out of existence. X stared at the spot for a moment.

The closet monster chuckled. "Don't you know little children aren't allowed to have weapons?"

Oh. In that case, X checked his special weapon archive. But that was different too. It had been completely rearranged to a system X was unfamiliar with. His old skills were gone, replaced with new skills labeled with titles like, '-1.5p/R/10f' and 'F.-25.0p/auto'. But they were there; they had to do something.

On intuition, X picked the skill. A complex formula ran through his head for a minute, so X had to keep out of the monster's attacks. Then the calculation was done. X raised his hand and a bright ray of sparkling white light appeared. It fired ten feet ahead, right through the closet monster. The monster howled and shattered into hundreds of black bits. Shining Light, his mind named that skill. It worked, but somehow he had the idea that it was a weak version and the monster just happened to be weak to it.

With that done, X called out, "Zero! Answer me!"

No response from Zero. But the little black shadows all came to life. They turned into strange little creatures, like the ones on the coat of arms. They squawked and squealed. Quickly, one grabbed X's arm and bit him through his armor.

"Ow, let go!" X fired another round of Shining Light. The one on his arm and any others in the ray's path were damaged. The shadow creatures all hissed as one.

That skill had limited energy, X realized. And the shadow things were mad. X ran.

The shadow creatures chased him, screaming and shrieking. They grabbed hold of his ankles, trying to slow him down. One managed to clamber onto X's head, peer over, and laugh at him. This made X stumble into a hole that he hadn't noticed. The shadow creatures grabbed the opportunity and swarmed over him, making X scream.

"X!" some boy called out. Who was that? X didn't care. He ran that way.

"Stop right there," Zero commanded. X stopped, trying to keep from being bitten again. There was a thump from above. A shower of stones fell on X, along with a shaft of sunlight. The creatures all screamed before being incinerated.

"What were those things?" the boy asked. X looked at him and was surprised to see he was a much younger version of Zero.

"I don't know. They were going to eat me."

" _Shadow Imps_ ," an odd creature said. It had a fairy-like form in an orb of light, but it wasn't close enough for X to see much more. " _They can be nasty when swarming. Did any of them bite you? They're known to be venomous on occasion_."

"At least one did," X said. He carefully touched the bite mark on his arm, where black holes the size of needles appeared in his armor. The fairy creature came up to look at it.

From above, Zero said, "Good, you can speak Elf. That'll help in getting out of this place. Zero, would you get Star Guise down to check on X?"

X felt confused. Zero was above him... and right in front of him? And why did that... elf? Why did that elf look like him?

"Okay," the child Zero said, but he got interrupted again.

This time, it was a door slamming open. Someone like X came through. Not quite like me, X thought, but he wasn't sure how this one was different. Something in his attitude. A brown elf followed him in and immediately went to hassle the white elf. "There you are, brats. Come along, the master will want you back."

"Back?" X asked, confused. "But what...?"

The false X snatched his hand and yanked him forward. "No questions. You're going back where you belong."

"What are you doing with those children, Copy X?" the adult Zero asked threateningly.

"None of your business, moron. None of my business either, but that doesn't give you the right to butt in, Neko."

So that wasn't Zero? The lookalike called Neko narrowed his eyes at the lookalike X. "Oh right, you're just following orders to the letter. No better than some idiotic robot, really."

"How dare you make insults when you're powerless? You couldn't stop me from doing what I wanted and now you've got yourself captive to me for the rest of eternity."

Undeterred, Neko smirked. "Well you've got yourself stuck in this loony bin of a castle doing nothing more important than tormenting small children. At least I'm sticking to my honor, copycat."

"Have you forgotten what you are? You're stuck to the ceiling and I'm..."

"You've gone crazy from trying to prove Dr. Weil wrong, am I right?"

Copy X scowled and leapt into the air. He hovered in front of Neko to argue more forcefully. While he was up there, Star Guise whistled softly. "Psst." When he got X and child Zero's attentions, he nodded to a rail cart nearby. "Get on that. I have a gut feeling it'll take you out of here."

"But what about you guys?" the other child asked quietly.

X glanced around. Copy X was too mad to notice them. Elsewhere, the two elves were caught up in their own fight. Then Star Guise started whispering again. "No, it's fine. So long as you kids get away from him, we don't care that we're still here. We'll keep him distracted; just don't look back."

"Thank you," X said quietly. Then both of them ran for the rail cart.

Once the cart sensed weight, it began moving forward. X grabbed hold of a post and Zero took a metal ring up front, just in time. The cart hit a steep decline and raced down. Zero turned to X. "So what's going on?"

"I don't know. This place isn't making any sense."

"But you're the one who called me here."

X shook his head. "No, I am X. I don't know what happened to the child we met at Ikari Tower. You are the Zero who was with me, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, from the top of the Tower. Oh great. So how are we getting out of this one?"

"I have no idea... brace yourself!"

The rail cart hit a pile of rubble at the bottom of the long decline. Despite hanging on as best they could, X and Zero were thrown off. A white ring suddenly appeared. They went through it and everything turned white.

* * *

 

July 31, XX54

"X?"

X sat up. "I'm fine. Where are you?"

Zero stood up in a snow drift. The hole came up to his waist. "Right here. Where are we?"

They were in a forest opening covered in snow. All around them, the landscape looked like an idyllic Christmastime postcard. The snow sparkled in the sun, completely unblemished outside of their landing area. Large evergreen trees blocked out the chilly wind to this open area. Other trees, bare for now, had icicles on the outermost branches, like small jewels. X felt in awe. "I don't know, but it's beautiful."

Zero got out of his hole and walked on the top layer of snow. It crunched delightfully under his feet. "Maybe we can find a village nearby, or something."

X knelt down. "This snow is just perfect. Not too wet, dry, powdery, or packed... just right..."

"I don't think there's anyone here," Zero said, just before he got smacked in the head with a snowball. "Hey!"

X laughed, unable to stop himself. "Sorry, but... it was too perfect!"

Zero gave him a look, then quickly ducked down and threw another snowball at X. Laughing and playfully taunting each other, the fight carried on for several minutes. Then Zero got his revenge by jumping behind X and stuffing a wad of snow down his armor.

"Aaaaaaack, that's cold!" The battle went on with renewed vengeance.

After a while, X was running out of Zero's way. Now that Zero was in on it, there'd be no more easy shots. X watched him for an opening. He tripped over something and fell into the snow.

Zero paused to make his snowball bigger, so X would get a good hit when he came out. But nothing happened. Maybe he slipped onto something hard. Zero dropped the large snowball and walked over to the hole. "X, you okay?"

He got smacked by a snowball to the face. X had waited down there. He was grinning.

That was embarrassing. Zero wiped the snow off his face while X stood up. "Nice one," he said sarcastically.

"Thanks. Hey, it's gotten dark rather fast, don't you think?"

Zero looked around. It was dark now. Snow was falling lightly. Night birds began haunting calls in the trees. A wolf howled. It had gotten colder, the wind stiffer. But one thing was missing. "What happened to that portal? Or the crazy castle?"

"I don't know." There was no one around. The snow covered forest, initially enchanting, now seemed stark and dangerous. "There aren't any signs... nowhere obvious to go..."

"We're in a lot of trouble."


	3. Night in the Deep Woods

July 31, XX54  
Balna Forest

A single reploid teleported into the forest opening. Despite being a wilderness area, there was a large disturbance, as he'd hoped for. But better not call a false alarm, not after so long.

Using a special spell, he walked just over the snow. The newly falling snow was filling the tracks, but he could still read them. Child-sized. The tread pattern indicated lightly armored boots, most characteristic of reploids, especially in this size. From the new snow in the tracks, they had been left about forty minutes ago.

Still not quite enough. He went back to one of the holes and knelt by it. A very close examination turned up a hair. Picking it up proved it to be long, around two feet. Putting it over the snow proved it to be golden blond. That was one.

Close examination of another hole turned up another hair. This one was four inches long and was black-blue. That was both.

"I've found the children," he reported over his com. "We can pick them up within an hour."

"Then let's go."

* * *

 

July 31, XX54  
Balna Forest

The two heroes, now children, walked through the dark woods. They were cold and wet. And like any child up late, both were getting crabby. "Is there any sign of shelter?" X asked again.

"No," Zero answered again. "Maybe we'll have to find a big rock and make our own."

"These woods are creepy," X said, for something different.

"Like there could be monsters here?"

"Yeah. Lions and tigers and bears..."

"Those are animals, not monsters."

X smiled weakly. "I know. Always wanted to say it, though. So long as we don't run into flying monkeys."

"No kidding." Zero felt like laughing, but the woods seemed to suffocate all humor. He shivered instead. He almost missed Alia's inane chatter. It was better than woodland silence. Then Zero began to feel vaguely uncomfortable. What now? He got a strange idea of what it was... "Um, X?"

"What?"

"I, uh... um, just wait here." Zero darted off.

"Zero!" X stamped his foot, irritated. What was he thinking? Then X felt something and thought he knew what was going on. He glanced around, then moved behind some trees.

A bit later, Zero came back. "Something's changed. There's, oh, things about me that weren't there before."

X stepped back onto their path. "I know. Well, sorry about getting mad. It seems unavoidable."

"But what's going on? Why do we suddenly have...?"

A worried look passed X's face. "You do realize what this change means, don't you?"

"That we have strange new habits?"

"Yeah, that, but more worrisome... the fact that we have an elimination system like that means we have to eat food."

"Seriously?"

"It wouldn't be set up like that otherwise. They may have some way or means for taking energy from food."

"But isn't that just for socializing with humans?"

X nodded. "In our world."

That caused him to stop. "Our... world? We made it to another world?"

"It seems so. We need food now. But in these woods, in winter... it's not going to be easy."

Zero shivered. "I think we really need shelter. I don't know about you, but I'm freezing. So if we need food and shelter, we probably need water too..."

"We're surrounded by snow and ice."

"Yeah, so that's no problem."

"Actually, that is the problem." X looked at a tree they were passing. "Hang on; I'm going to climb up and see if I can get a direction to go."

"I'll do it. I'm smaller, so I can probably get higher."

"That's true. Be careful."

"I'll be back before you know it." Zero looked up at the branch well over his head. He leapt up, grabbed hold, then quickly scrambled up the tree.

X watched him and worried. He hoped Zero didn't fall. If one of them got injured out here...

Zero came back down. "This isn't good."

"What did you see?"

"Trees. That was it, pretty much. But there isn't a moon out, so we may have to wait for day to actually see something. For now..."

"We need to keep looking."

An hour later, they still hadn't found any shelter. They tried using one of the evergreen trees, but the wind got under the branches. And once they stopped, the water on them began turning to frost. Now they were walking again, side by side so they didn't lose each other. They weren't talking. It was too cold and no matter how they tried, it was hard to avoid bickering. X thought about it, about how a search like this had been no problem before Ikari Tower. Then, this would be simple, easier because there were no enemies. Now, enough things had changed to that stresses became magnified to the point of them to fight needlessly.

Maybe something had gone wrong in the transfer. What had the child been planning originally? He probably didn't mean to put X into his body... had they swapped worlds instead? Well, maybe if they found a way back to their normal bodies, X and Zero could come back as their usual selves to help with this monster problem. X wished he knew more.

He stopped when Zero stopped. They had come to another opening. This time, it was a large frozen lake. More importantly, on the other side was a building with porch lights on. "There we go!" Zero said triumphantly.

"Looks like a house with some boats."

"Don't need a boat now. Come on." Zero started out across the lake.

X hesitated, looking at the ice. "Are you sure it's safe? The water under there must be very cold."

"Don't worry; it's too cold for this ice to be brittle. Besides, we can't weigh much."

"That's true." X started out across the iced lake.

But the ice continued to worry him. He tried to judge, by the sound of his feet, how thick the ice was. As the wind kept the snow cover thin, he could look under his footprints through the ice. It was dark, leaving little to see. But one glance showed something pale swimming under the water. Something large and pale.

X shuddered and tried to hurry up his pace. The lake ice was just slick enough to make progress difficult. He saw the large pale thing several more times. He tried to calm himself; logically, it couldn't come up through the ice. And it was probably some large fish. An extremely large fish. But part of X's mind didn't heed the logic and kept imagining the cracking of the ice, the chill of near frozen water, and the scare of an underwater monster. His mind became a battle of logic and fear, and he wasn't sure why.

Then his fear began manifesting itself. His power core picked up the pace and his lungs began to hurt. No, he was just imagining things, if he'd just calm down... no, they were in danger, they could die right here. They'd die and no one would know where they were, except the lake monster who probably wanted to eat them. No, it was fine. No, it was horrible.

Zero paused for a moment. "Hey X, you okay?"

X turned to look at him, but became dizzy and lightheaded. He tried a breathing exercise for calmness. It didn't work, because his lungs were too tense. "I feel really scared and I don't know why," he finally admitted.

"We'll be safe in a bit. Besides, this ice is solid." Zero stomped on it. "Come on."

"I'm trying to tell myself that but it's making me feel sick."

"Your fear is making you sick? That's silly."

"There's a pale monster under the ice. I saw it; it'll try to eat us."

Zero grabbed his hand. "Stop thinking and let's go. We'll figure it out later."

"Zero, we could die here! Of course I'm afraid! I wish I knew what was going on..."

He felt irritated at X's outburst, but Zero put that aside as he realized he'd never seen X act quite like this before. He thought quickly through Maverick Hunter procedure for dealing with terrified civilians in a battle zone. Perhaps that was closest. "Let's get off the lake and we'll talk about it." He pulled X along.

X felt embarrassed but still frightened. "Okay, okay... sorry, but... I don't know... ow." He grabbed his arm, then pulled off part of his armor.

"What is it?" Zero looked and realized that was the arm that the Imp had bitten. The small needle-like holes had grown. The outside ring was black and the inside was bright red. "Dormant venom... it's been over an hour."

"Great, we're cold, we're lost, I'm scared out of my mind, and I'm poisoned..." X shook his head, then stared back the way they had come. His eyes widened. "And now we're really going to die," he said in a choked voice.

Zero looked that way, but saw nothing. "What? That lake monster?"

"I'd rather be eaten by the lake monster than fall into their hands."

Zero finally saw them. Four adult reploids were coming quickly across the ice. Somehow they seemed familiar, but in a bad way. Zero knew he despised and feared them at the same time. So who were they?

X suddenly took off running. Zero followed him soon after, but it was hard to get good footing on the ice. In comparison, the four reploids after them seemed to be prepared for the ice. The children weren't, so X hit a slick spot and wound up tumbling several feet. Zero tried to slow to help him up, but skidded and tripped over X. While they tried to get up, their pursuers caught up and stopped smoothly. X and Zero were caught in a strange feeling, that they knew these four strangers all too well.

The leader was named Quint. He looked sort of like X. He had smoky black hair, green and gold armor, a green helmet with an odd gold V on the forehead, one red eye, and one silver eye. Then there was Enker, who was carrying a wicked looking energy spear. His armor was entirely yellow, like mettaur helmet armor. He had one black eye and one silver eye. Next was Punk, who looked like he was a weapon himself. His heavy red armor was covered in spikes and blades; a saw blade was sticking out of his helmet. Although most of his face was covered, one could see he had one hazel eye and one silver eye. The last was Ballade, who didn't have an obvious weapon on hand, although he was still dangerous. His violet colored armor appeared to be blast proof material and his eyes were one brown and one silver.

Punk rolled his eyes. "Great, it is just the runt and the devil child. I was hoping for a battle this round."

Enker had his spear at ready. "How did you two escape us?"

X felt his panic attack sharpen. "Wh-what are you talking about?"

Zero got up and put himself between X and the four enemies. "You are not taking us back!" he shouted, with a ferocity he rarely tapped into. But back where?

"Just shut up," Quint said as he cast a water beam attack. It blasted Zero back several feet, and then froze him to the lake.

"Pesky runt," Punk said. "Never could teach you respect."

Zero tried to struggle out of the ice. Could he somehow activate Dusty Blade? But what happened if he did escape? What could they do, as two children against four adults? Zero tried struggling out anyways.

Quint walked up to X, who was frozen with fear. X looked up at him and felt dizzier. The bite marks burned painfully. But all his symptoms paled when he looked into Quint's eyes and saw the hatred there. He knelt and touched X's chin. X wondered what kept him from blasting his brains out. Cruelly, the adult smiled. "Our little devil child has gotten poisoned. Well, X, as much as I would like to stay here for the next hour and watch you die painfully, we've been sent to rescue you."

"That's a pity," Enker said. "I still want to know how they got out from under our noses."

"They went through Shadow Palace," Ballade explained. "The fruitcake in charge there informed me."

"So the balmy bastard wasn't lying," Punk said.

"Well I'm sure you both suffered in getting through there," Enker said, "but don't worry. We'll be certain to punish both of you well."

"We can just not give him the anti-venom until the last moment. Anything else out here?"

"No..."

"Hey, is that the lake cracking?" Punk asked, looking to the side.

X heard the cracking moments earlier and knew his fears were coming true. The lake wasn't entirely frozen. There was a loud booming crack right below him and Quint. With the ice fracturing, Quint stepped back, twice. Then the crack between X and Quint erupted with frozen water spray. X scrambled up and ran back. He skidded again, so he grabbed onto Zero to avoid slipping. Just then, Zero broke free of his ice.

Not about to let this chance slide, Zero took X's arm. "Let's go while..."

A loud roar interrupted him. The pale monster X had seen swimming earlier came out of the cracks. It was a hydra, with three heads on three necks, a thick bluish-white body, and large flippers. All three of its heads were occupied with the four adult reploids. Its tail whipped around fast, grabbing the two child reploids, then flinging them off the lake. X and Zero landed in a snowbank not far from the boathouse.

Zero got up and looked at the hydra battling the mavericks (for they had to be mavericks if they wanted a child reploid to die). "Well that worked better than I hoped for..."

"We're not in the clear," X said, still terrified.

Zero looked in the direction X was and saw the newest threat: a White Core Demon. It roared; not nearly as loud as the hydra, but still a roar. Core Demons were exceptionally tough enemies and neither had seen a White one before. They waited for a moment as the White Demon did... nothing? It just stood there dumbly.

Well if it was going to be so placid... Zero tugged at X. "Come on, let's go."

"I... I can't."

"X!"

"No, really..." X collapsed.

* * *

 

For a moment, everything seemed to stop. Zero looked at X, bewildered. Nothing was making sense. Nothing was as he knew things to be. The last time things had made sense, they were arguing with Sigma and about to fight him. Then that child showed up and all rationality seemed to be thrown out the window. Zero looked at X collapsed in the snow and had no idea what to do next.

A wolf barked nearby and was answered by another. This caused Zero to look up and notice a newcomer running up to them. Unlike the mavericks, Zero had no idea who this was. This reploid had battle armor every bit as impressive as the other four, his in black with orange accents. He had two orange fins coming off his helmet. His eyes, both of them, were violet. Coming with him were two wolves, one a violet wolfoid, the other a flesh and blood gray wolf.

The stranger and his wolves came to them. The reploid knelt and examined X's arm. "Shadow Imp venom," he said. "He needs immediate attention."

Zero looked at him and wondered why this person in particular was a stranger. "Who are you?"

The stranger looked into Zero's eyes, as if puzzled by the question. Then he answered, "A friend. I will take you both to safety. Come quickly."

Picking X up, he walked over to the Demon. He said something in a weird guttural language. The White Demon responded in the same and changed into a pair of horses. That was odd; according to the old records and what Zero knew, the Core Demons rarely changed into realistic animals. Maybe a White Demon trait?

Zero glanced back at the hydra, then decided it was probably safer to go with this adult. Not by much, but between four he knew were mavericks, and one he didn't know anything about... he followed the black reploid over to the horses.

The stranger then barked at the wolves and gave them some order. Both split off into the forest. Then he shifted X to one arm so he could help Zero up with the other. "Hang tight to his mane," he instructed. "The Demon will protect you, just don't let go until we're there."

"Okay."

He nodded, then carried X onto the other horse and set off. Zero hung on tightly. The Demon horse went fast, dodging trees and leaping pits. In moments, the air blasted against his already frosted armor and chilled him completely through. He lost feeling in his fingers, holding on so tight. Zero tried breathing on them so they didn't lose grip of the mane.

About fifteen minutes later, the horses slowed. There was a pair of greenhouses here. Zero looked inside and saw a variety of plants growing inside. Vegetables, fruits, and grains... he realized they were all staggered in growth, so there was constantly something to be harvested.

The White Demon stopped in front of a log cabin. It was a small building, perhaps twenty-five by thirty feet. Smoke came out of a stone chimney. Strange; buildings like this hadn't been regularly built for four hundred years, at least, not back home. The stranger got off, so Zero jumped off the horse and went inside.

"How is he?" Zero asked worriedly.

'We're in good time," he answered. "Your friend will be okay."

The cabin was warm inside. There was only one room, and it was obvious this reploid lived alone. He put X on a cot. X moaned and his face looked flushed. "He's X. I'm Zero."

"I see. I'm Eldritch Shadetree. Are you okay?"

"I guess." Zero brought his hands up. "My fingers are kinda frozen."

Eldritch touched them; they were still in the shape of holding onto the horse's mane. "That isn't too bad. Here, take this and sit by the stove." He handed Zero a heavy blanket. "There's also some mugs of rabbit stew on there, once your fingers thaw a bit."

"Okay." Zero went to sit by the stove, but for a while, watched Eldritch work on X.

He went to a cabinet and pulled out a bag filled with yellow-brown paste. He placed the paste around the outside of the bite wound. Holding his open hand over the wound about three inches, Eldritch closed his eyes. His hand began to glow green. Thin puffs of black smoke came out of X's arm. Several minutes were spent in pulling this smoke out.

Zero felt puzzled. He'd never seen a healing like that before. Then again, he'd never heard of a venom that affected reploids so severely, perhaps fatally. Zero himself had been bitten by a venomous snake once on a mission. It would have been deadly for a human to get a tenth of the poison he got then. All Zero got was a badly swollen ankle and a week where he wasn't supposed to get up and move. That had been pure torture.

His fingers were loose now. He could smell the stew's broth and that made him feel odd again. Was this feeling a needful hunger? It was likely; Zero took one of the mugs and a spoon. He'd try it, anyhow.

It was wonderful. Either no one at home knew how to properly make stew, or his sensory equipment had grown more sensitive. It was much better to eat like this. No wonder humans liked food so much. Maybe it did give him strange new habits, but Zero felt it was a good tradeoff. Except maybe the tradeoff got X poisoned...

Zero finished the stew while watching Eldritch. It was a slow process. Eventually, Eldritch drew his hand back. The smoke followed his hand. Then he made a 'come here' sign with his other hand. A small vial with a metal stopper floated over to him.

How powerful was Eldritch? Telekinesis usually required individualized gravitational generators and it was much easier to move large objects than small. To have such fine control that he could gravitate just one small glass vial to him, that showed considerable power and energy.

While Zero puzzled over the telekinesis, Eldritch opened the vial and put the smoke into it. It liquidized into a few drops of venom. He sealed the vial, then spread the yellow-brown paste over X's wound. Lastly, he put a healing screen over the area to block out any dust or bacteria.

Then he came over to sit by Zero. "Are you feeling better?" He took down one of the mugs of stew for himself.

Zero put down his mug. "Yeah. How did you know we were out there?"

"The wolves told me. They notice everything that goes on in this wilderness. And you're lucky that hydra owed me a favor. Otherwise, it would have been much messier back there."

"Well this is just some strange dream. We're not really kids, you know."

"You're not?"

"This isn't our world. We've been magicked away." Zero frowned, then shook his head. "No, magic isn't real, it's all superstitious mumbo-jumbo."

"You're probably confused," Eldritch said. "The wolves said you came from Shadow Palace. That is a place of nightmares and illusions. This is the real world."

While it certainly looked real, there were illusion chambers good enough to produce an illusion of this detail and size. "No it's not. We're dreaming all this."

"You'll be fine. The Hunters can't reach you for the time being."

"But what about you?" Zero felt a rising panic, which didn't care if he was being rational or not. "What are you going to do to us? What did you do to X?"

"Calm down, it's okay..." Eldritch said, touching his shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" The touch burned like a welding torch.

Instead, Eldritch got a better grip on Zero's shoulder and passed his other hand in front of Zero's face. "Everything will be okay. You're safe now."

Everything would be okay. Zero's eyelids felt heavy and he became strangely calm. Maybe he was dreaming. Maybe he'd wake up by going to sleep. Still, just in case, "Don't hurt X."

Eldritch finished his stew, then got up to give X some warm broth. Zero stared blankly at the stove. It was a wood burning stove. There was a fire crackling calmly inside. Fire...

There was a lake of fire, and it was far from calm. A dragon of fire swam below the surface, waiting for the right time to strike. The child Zero read from a book, putting his hopes on a promise made with a silver tongue.

The adult Zero ran up the walkway. "Don't do it!"

The child Zero turned to look at him, startled.

Eldritch picked Zero up. He wasn't quite asleep. Zero opened his eyes slightly. Stepping silently through the room, Eldritch took Zero to another cot and placed him there. Zero looked across the pillow, then closed his eyes, thinking he'd be left alone to sleep. But no; Eldritch sat by his cot for a little while. The last thing he was aware of that night was Eldritch running his hand through Zero's hair. It was a strange gesture, oddly familiar...

* * *

 

July 31?  
Maverick Hunters HQ?

It was just the two of them in the mission control room, which was odd. Normally it was a busy room. X was reading one of his fantasy novels and Zero was playing Asteroids on an idle station.

"I had a bizarre dream last night," X said. "We were children in the woods. It was winter."

Zero paused his game. "I had a dream like that too. There was a hydra in a frozen lake."

"Strange. Did we have the same dream?"

Zero smiled. "Remember that old prank? You hook up two sleeping pods and there's a good chance the two reploids will share the same dream. Maybe someone told Axl."

X chuckled. "Oh yes, the dream-link. But they've increased security since then. It should be much harder to link two pods like that."

"Still, it might... hey, check that out. Is that our child selves?"

X looked up at the main screen. "Yeah, it is."

"Weird. Wonder why they're there." Zero began messing with the station.

X squinted. "Zero? I think this is the dream. Let's watch them."

* * *

 

June 17, XX54  
Ikari Tower

Zero paced along the entrance to the room. X sat in a corner and read a book. On a slight noise, Zero tilted his head. "Someone's coming close."

"Who?"

"I dunno. Heavy footsteps... maybe one of the Hunters."

X shivered and clenched his book. "I hope they're not looking for us."

"They won't separate us again," Zero said fiercely, despite being so small. "I'll protect you."

"Thanks." His voice had a defeated tone to it, though, as if he felt these Hunters could not be overcome. From the way he was sitting by some boxes, it seemed he was trying to hide from something.

The child Zero paused in his pacing. "Still, we must leave soon."

Uncertain, X shrank into his corner. "We must. But the world is so large and scary."

Then Enker appeared in the doorway. Their area was no longer secure. "There you are. The master has called you."

The child X paled. "Th-the master?"

"What does he want with X?" Zero demanded, making a tense fist, but showing some fear as well.

"You will come along and find out."

"Not until you tell us why."

Enker glared sternly and grabbed Zero by his collar. "Not a chance, small fry."

Zero bit Enker's arm. The Hunter winced, but had been bitten too many times before to react verbally. With his other hand, he grabbed Zero's neck and began choking him. But the child didn't let go.

Not long after, X dropped his book and came over. "Please don't hurt him. Let him go, I'll come."

Zero was finally let go, to gasp for breath. While Enker had let go of his neck, he took hold of his hair. "Both of you are coming today. Now hurry up; you've wasted enough time as it is." He took off quickly, with Zero struggling to keep on his feet.

X felt sick inside, remembering the last incident they had both been forced to. But Enker was threatening Zero now, so X had to follow. He hurried along, eventually catching up at the elevator. "Just keep quiet and cooperate," X whispered. "They'll let us go sooner if we do."

"What is this about?" he whispered back.

"Shut up, both of you," Enker growled. Both of them were quiet after that. "*** ****, why do I have to fetch the *** runts?" he muttered.

Eventually, they wound up in a large hexagonal room lit by a single torch. The other three Hunters were there, talking quietly in the light. But once Enker and the kids came in, they moved into the shadows. Another member of Wily's army was in the shadows, but his cape obscured much of his form. The master of Ikari Tower was there too, in the shadows. Enker tied the children to two metal rings on the floor so that they could only see the torch and each other. Then he moved into the shadows.

"Why've we got both of them today?" Quint asked.

"We've already done this dozens of times with the devil child," Punk added, using their favorite nickname for X.

"There are thousands of things that could go wrong in the actual casting," the master said. "We must perform a test at least once with both."

At least once... X shuddered. That meant they'd have to do this again, and again...

What had they done dozens of times to X? Zero never knew. X would come back in tears every time and his words were so garbled that Zero didn't know what was going on. But it couldn't be that bad. Now Zero would know, and now he could explain things, even if he wasn't the intelligent one. But what if this was that bad?

"Clear your minds and begin."

X closed his eyes to the start of the chant, but eventually the magic forced him to watch. Thin red lines began tracing on the floor. Images came to X's mind, as always, of fire and ice, of shadows, of snakes, of monsters, of fear and death... he looked at Zero and tried to remain brave with his friend there. But eventually the images overcame him and X screamed.

Zero looked at the red lines. What was so bad about this? Something about it terrified X. Of course, it didn't take much to do that lately... then Zero noticed the lines were forming a picture. It was a rune he'd only seen once before, a precursor to a horrible memory. Were they using that to purposely scare X? Zero felt mad. He looked at the torch, which was now made of black fire. The flame moved and raised a head and wings. A dragon of fire...

Zero screamed too, but not with fear. He was furious. His temper had been manageable before, but now it went completely wild. Viciously, he struggled against the metal ring. It was heavy, but the small child started to put it under strain. He glared out at the shadows and felt that if he got loose, he would tear their captors apart. Even if he was a runt.

Zero's tantrum only terrified X further, which made Zero angrier. The black flame dragon grew larger and more active as the children struggled to escape. The adult casters didn't seem to notice the screams until...

"Hold. That will do for now."

Thank goodness. X quieted, but still shook. Zero kept trying to fight off the heavy ring.

"What do we do with them now?" Enker asked.

"Take them back to their rooms. You may tranquilize the blond child if necessary."


	4. The Wolf Master

August 1, XX54  
Balna Forest

Zero woke up, feeling emotions from the dream fade away. So if that was the dream, what was this?  
He rubbed his eyes and looked around. Yes, they were still in the log cabin in the forest. A fire was calmly burning in the fireplace, scenting the air with charred wood. A few birds called outside. Most of the furniture looked handmade; there was an unfinished chair in one corner. There was also a small computer, a pair of small cleaning robots, and some electrical tools. The odd mix of technologies in the house of a reploid made Zero wonder what sort of person Eldritch was.

Eldritch wasn't in the room, but X was, and was awake. Zero got up and walked to the other cot. "How are you now?"

"Better, I guess. I'm really tired though. Couldn't sleep much last night."

"Did you have a nasty dream about a black torch dragon too?"

From the way his face paled, he had. "It was horrible. I hope that was just a dream."

"But it seemed real. You know, like a dream of memories. Anyhow, Eldritch did some healing on you. That bite mark barely shows now."

"That's good."

"But he did it in an odd way."

"Odd?"

Zero paused, to word this right. "I think, from the way he healed you and the dream last night... and Quint's water blast... I think this world has magic."

"Magic?"

"Yeah. Sounds strange, but he seemed to be calling the poison out of your body by his will alone. Or maybe by his magic. And later, he used a relaxant spell on me."

X sat up. "Magic... that sounds right."

"What about it?"

"My special weapons system has changed. I think it's a magic system now. The energies are different, and the feel of when I use that power is different. I can think of it now: special runes, mystic calculations, healing plants... yeah, magic is real here."

"This world is strange."

"So why did he use a relaxant spell on you?"

"Well I tried to explain last night that we weren't really kids, that we were from another world." He glanced at the door.

"And?"

"I didn't do well. I freaked out for no apparent reason. And then he said that the Shadow Palace, that place we first wound up, is a place of shadows and illusions. Nothing there is real, so he seems to think that we're confused and just think that we're adults."

"Oh. That could cause trouble."

"I tried..."

The door opened. Eldritch came over. "Good, you're both up. We have a long ways to travel."

Zero felt a bit odd at that moment, but couldn't say why. Looking up to the apparent wizard, he asked, "Travel? But you said we were safe here."

"For a single night, yes. There's too many dangers here for children like you to stay long. I have a safe place in mind, but travel is difficult these days." He put his hand on X's forehead. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"I'm really tired and my head hurts a little."

Eldritch leaned down and looked right in his eyes. "Hmm... the poison is gone from your body, but you still need to recover. A day of rest should put you back to normal. Do you think you could come out to the sled?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay. But first we need to get you boys some winter protection. Stand up straight, both of you."

X got off the cot and stood next to Zero. Eldritch measured them visually. "Do you keep winter armor for children around?"

"No. Why would I? It's usually just me out here. But you're both fairly small, so it should be a simple transformation spell."

X watched him closely. Eldritch took one of his cloaks out of a cabinet, as well as a pair of foot add-ons. He pulled out a plasma blade weapon; this one was orange and the length of a dagger. Using the dagger, he cut the cloak from top to bottom. Next, Eldritch closed his eyes and seemed to be thinking. He passed his hands over the two halves and transformed them into two wholes. As he did that, X felt something. The power of the spell, he thought, which could be detected by sensitive individuals. X whispered to Zero, "Do you feel anything?"

Zero whispered back, "What are you talking about?"

Then it was just him that had a magic sense. "Just wondering."

Eldritch handed them the two new cloaks. "Here, try them on. I can adjust them if they aren't the right size."

The cloaks were made up of a sturdy vest, a hood, and a heavy cape that could cover their entire bodies. Zero needed his cape shortened a bit, and X felt the magic again. He also felt it when Eldritch split and transformed the add-ons as well. And now that he knew it was magic, he could remember feeling something similar when Quint used his water blast... so that was a spell too.

"These will allow you to walk normally on ice, just in case," he told them, as he helped Zero install the add-ons. "You must still be careful with snowdrifts."

Then they walked out to his sled. It was formed like a horse drawn carriage, but without the horses. A green glow underneath signaled some sort of anti-grav engine or jet skis. There were two rows of benches and a storage space in back. The purple wolfoid they had seen last night was back; he raised his ears and wagged his tail as Eldritch walked by and scratched the wolf's head. There were also five pure white eagles. Zero looked at the eagles and noticed one had a purple sphere in its chest. From that, he figured out that the eagles were the White Demon in another animal form.

X lay down on the second bench. Zero sat next to him as Eldritch went back inside for a few more supplies. "Do you think magic is what made the venom so bad? Because I thought it was hard to poison a reploid."

"That could be." X yawned. "Could you... do you think you could ask Eldritch about this world? Especially about those monsters we're supposed to fight. You can tell me later."

"Sure, I will."

Zero stayed back with X a while to make sure it would be okay for him. Before long, his friend fell asleep. The sled seemed to have some sort of suspension, since it moved smoothly. Since that shouldn't bother him, Zero moved up to the driver's bench with Eldritch. "Sorry about last night," he said. "I was confused."

"That's fine," Eldritch said. He was monitoring three screens, from which he was steering the sled. "You can't be expected to think straight if you've just walked out of Shadow Palace."

"Do you know what that place is? Because my mind seems muddled. Like I was in front of an iced over window, but it opened to a warm sunny garden."

"It may take you a while to regain your mental footing. Shadow Palace is a mysterious place. No one is quite sure what it is. Some say that our souls enter Shadow Palace in dreams, and that is why it behaves the way it does. Others say that if you enter Shadow Palace awake, you will forget who you really are. It's one of those places that can't be studied by the logical mind."

"Oh..." But how could such a place exist? Perhaps only by magic. But then what were reploids doing in this magical world? He'd have to ask X about it later; he read a lot of fantasy novels.

"What were you doing there anyways? Balna Forest is closely connected to the Palace, so I wind up with a lot of confused people. But I've never seen children come out."

"That's partly what I'm muddled on. We were in some tower, where bad things were happening."

He seemed to make a guess. "Ikari Tower?"

"That's it. We were at the tower that looks like a gigantic living tree in the desert. We were chasing mavericks."

Eldritch touched one of his screens, then slid it over for Zero to see. "Actually, Ikari Tower looks like a gigantic dead tree, in the Forbidden Mountains."

Zero looked at the picture and it did match up to the image in his mind. Only a dead tree instead of a living one, and many snowy mountains instead of orange desert. "I thought it was in Death Valley."

"Death Valley, Forbidden Mountains, same idea. A deadly place. What do you mean by chasing mavericks?"

"I... I'm not sure. Mavericks are bad reploids. Maybe we were being chased by them?"

"Bad... oh, you mean the darklings. Never heard them called maverick before, but it could work. And you were being chased by the Hunters."

"No, we were the Hunters... never mind. Who are Quint and the Hunters anyhow?"

"Well if you know their leader's name, why don't you know them?"

"I know of Enker, Ballade, and Punk too... but I can't think of who they are."

"They used to be called the Rockman Killers, but eventually they became known as the Dark Hunters. They're some of the best warriors in the world. I used to work with them, even though I was better than any of them."

He did? So why was he helping them? Or, was he helping them? "You used to work with them? Because they were very mean to us. Enker used to hit me against the wall and choke me if I didn't do what he asked."

"Why that..." Eldritch caught his temper and shook his head. "I used to work with them. Not anymore. I saw where I was going wrong and stopped, but they kept at it. They seem to enjoy hurting people."

"They certainly liked hurting us," Zero said dismally, thinking to the dream last night.

It was quiet between them for a while. Then Eldritch asked, "Do you remember anything of your parents?"

Again, it didn't make sense. "My parents?"

"Certainly you have some parents, at least a creator if you weren't born."

"Reploids are built, not born."

Eldritch shrugged it off. "Technically. They don't get born as human children get born, but reploid children get born nonetheless."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're still too young to hear of that. So what of your parents?"

"I don't know if I have parents. But X did read to me about parents and families and stuff. It sounds nice." He had? When?

"So who took care of you?"

"X did."

"But you two seem about the same age."

Zero paused, mentally reviewing what he'd been saying. Any way he did, it didn't make sense. Some things weren't true, but they felt true. He had images in his mind that weren't his memories. His memories seemed unavailable. Or if they did pop up, it was suddenly and only for brief glimpses. Like Zero was certain that when X first joined the Maverick Hunters, Zero had to watch out for him and make sure he was ready. But he couldn't think of anything specific. The blur in his mind began to hurt. "I don't know... I can't seem to remember what's real."

Eldritch put his hand on Zero's shoulder. "False memories. It happens a lot to Shadow Palace victims. But that means you've been in there for a long time."

"Time doesn't matter there. Even that warps."

He paused, as if not sure how to answer that. Puzzled, Zero looked up at Eldritch. His mind seemed out of focus. Something came through, something that felt important.

"Sometimes I dream of my father," he said.

"Are they good dreams or bad dreams?" Eldritch asked.

Oddly enough, Zero felt like saying both.

Eldritch touched his forehead. "Is something wrong?"

Pushing the other's hand back, he replied. "I have a really bad headache all of a sudden. Like my mind's being torn apart."

"Go lie down in back for a moment. I'll get you something to help."

Since they were small children, X and Zero could both lie on the back bench comfortably. A minute later, Eldritch gave Zero a cup of hot tea. It calmed his headache, but made him go to sleep.

* * *

Eldritch stopped for the night and built a campfire. As both boys were awake, they talked. It was light-hearted until they heard a bird's cry. But if that was a bird, it was far larger than any in their home world. It was definitely something powerful.

X shivered. "I've heard that sound in my dreams."

"Hush," Eldritch said. He waited ten minutes before saying, "That is a sound many people fear."

"What was that?" Zero asked.

"The Ice Dragon."

"Ice Dragon?"

"Yes. Don't you know of her?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't know about any dragons." Any real dragons, at least.

"What about you, if you knew her call?"

X shrugged. "I've just heard it before. I never really knew what it was. But I have dreams of strange things."

"What sort of dreams?"

"Just this afternoon, I dreamed I was talking to someone who looked like me. We were in the snow. He said this world is dying."

"That's true."

"But how is that possible? What's going on?"

Eldritch shifted the fire. "It seems you both were more sheltered than I thought. All right; I'll tell you of the Ice Dragon and the curse we have lived under for twenty-five years."

* * *

 

Albert Wily was an evil man, or monster, depending on who you ask. He was a wizard intent on ruling the world through dark magic and fear. As he was a deceptive man, accurate descriptions are few. But we are certain that he created many monsters and demons, including many of the darkling reploids, to haunt the world.

A brave few stood up to him, most notably Thomas Light. Light was a quiet wizard of the Sorcery ring, but a genius above all. He must have known something more about Wily, because his counterattacks were most effective. He was the one who created the two reploid heroes who brought Wily down: Rock and Blues. We've had robots for many years, but Light was the first one to make robots strong in magic, and then he was the first to turn those robots into reploids. As I said, he was a genius who made much of today's technology and mystics possible.

Rock and Blues were very effective against Wily's creations, but it still took three decades for them to undo everything that he had done. The brothers brought Wily's army from millions to a few hundred; they forced Wily to retreat to his strongest fortress, Ikari Tower. But what happened in that final battle, no one knows.

Wily's attacks stopped. No one saw any of his dark creations for years. The heroic reploids were honored, but before long, Rock and Blues went into a reclusive retirement with their father. No one heard from them for years either. There had never been an official confirmation or denial on whether or not Wily was dead. But the world became quiet, so everyone assumed he was dead.

And then came the Ice Dragon. It was five years after the final battle at Ikari Tower. Reports came in of a new evil creature in the world. All the witnesses were children. It was always the children who saw her, never any adults. The child witnesses were very afraid and tried to warn us. The Ice Dragon would ruin the world, perhaps worse than Wily's army of dark creatures had. But the adults didn't believe it. How could something only visible to children be threatening?

That particular winter, five years after Wily was gone, was extremely harsh. People said it was a once a century season, perhaps once a millennia. The children knew and tried to warn us. It was the Ice Dragon, covering the world with snow and ice, thus cursing us all.

April came, and it was still winter. No one worried much. It was freak storms and spring would come shortly. July came, and it was still winter. People wondered, but felt it was just strange weather patterns. By now, nearly every child had seen the Ice Dragon at least once, and they were very afraid. August came and went, still in winter. November came, and there had not been a day without snow or ice for an entire year in many areas. By that point, even the tropical regions were freezing over. The Great Green Sea, which lies close to Balna Forest, had frozen solid and still hasn't come unfrozen. In November, everyone knew. The Ice Dragon was real, and she had cursed the world to eternal winter.

Initially, it was just the winter curse, and people adjusted. But with every passing year, the Ice Dragon seemed to grow stronger and bolder. She began attacking people. One always knew her victims, for they were coated in silver colored ice. We gathered together and built strongholds against her power. Initially it was as simple as gathering in cities; now, few dare live in a place with less than five hundred thousand people, a strong protective wall, and an enhanced mystical shield against magic of snow and ice.

The militaries of the world were all regrouped, forming the individual City Guardians. Rock and Blues came back into the public eye; they formed the global Snow Patrol with the duties of protecting travelers, maintaining trade routes, and hunting the Ice Dragon. Many humans and reploids joined in. But the Ice Dragon is tremendously strong and no one could bring her down.

And then about five years ago... twenty years into the Ice Dragon's curse, twenty-five years after Wily's assumed death, new threats appeared. Old ones, really. The dark army of Albert Wily returned. At first, it was only a few sightings here and there. Now any traveler is lucky to avoid meeting one of Wily's monsters. But while Wily had been boastful and inclined to use public media to spread fear, no one has heard any such threats. So was he the one to create the Ice Dragon and the curse of eternal winter, as revenge against the world? Or is he too fighting the Ice Dragon, but in ways that could be dangerous to everyone else?

No one really knows anymore. These times are dark, and cold.

* * *

 

August 1, XX54  
Balna Forest

"It never lets up?" Zero asked.

"Never. Sometimes it warms up just enough to melt the snow, but it never goes away completely. It's the first of August, so it should be hot and humid. Instead, it's winter. And so our world slowly dies." Eldritch took a drink of water, looking thoughtful, perhaps with a touch of regret.

"If someone killed the Ice Dragon, would that make the winter go away?" Zero asked, leaning forward.

"Theoretically, yes, since her appearance brought winter. But no one has yet succeeded in defeating her."

X thought about it. "So is Wily dead or alive?"

"I don't know."

"But he is your father."

"He is?" Zero asked. Where had that idea come from?

Eldritch nodded. "He is. I'm not certain how you knew that, but..."

"So do you know or not?"

"I don't. I left my father's services before Rock defeated him. Supposedly I died for doing so, but I managed to slip away. I just wanted a quiet simple life. Not that they cared much..." then he stopped abruptly, as if he didn't want to talk on that further.

X nodded. "I see. If that's all you can tell us, since you even gave us a false name."

Eldritch smiled. "Now how do you know that? I thought I took great care to disguise my continued existence."

Now he was stumped. "Um... it just came to me. It was the truth, so I said it."

"I see. You may be gifted with a third eye."

He touched his face. "But I only have two eyes."

He laughed softly. "No, I mean you have some psychic abilities. A third eye, meaning you can see far more than other people, especially of truth."

"I do have the power to know magic instinctively." X rubbed his throat. Somehow, it didn't seem to be his own voice talking. "I guess."

"You must use any gift like that responsibly. It's a rare talent."

"I know."

He put his cup down. "So what is my true name? That would prove if you have a third eye."

"Your name?" X looked at the man calling himself Eldritch. He looked into his eyes. "Forte."

"That's right."

"Hey, did you say it's August first?"

"It is. It'll take a while for you to adjust back to normal time."

X playfully tapped Zero. "Then that means it's your birthday!"

Zero perked up. "Oh yeah! I'm three today, right?"

"Right."

Forte patted his shoulder. "Well happy birthday, Zero. It's good to have a special day in freedom, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It is kinda weird that I forget about it." Actually, Zero couldn't remember ever celebrating his birthday before. He didn't know when exactly he'd been activated. Those days were hazy in his memory.

"Well, hopefully we'll get settled soon. Here, give me that apple you haven't finished."

"Okay." He handed X his half-eaten apple.

X wasn't sure what he was doing, but it came to him easily. He took a slice of bread in his hand and placed the apple half on that. Then he placed his other hand over it. A complex formula of runic symbols passed through his mind; his hands began to glow white. He finished calculating the formula and a strange sense of power flowed into both of his hands. When he felt the spell was done, he pulled his top hand away. There was a small frosted spice cake in his hand. He handed that to Zero. "There you go."

"Thanks, I like it when you make these." He took a bite of it. It was very moist and apple-y. "It's good."

"That was a good transformation," Forte said. "So you do know magic very well."

"I read a lot of books."

"No kidding," Zero said. "Anything he could get his hands on, he read."

"Although I think he could use a nice gift as well."

X shrugged. "I've never had anything to give."

"I think I can manage something." Forte rubbed his hands together, then put them to his lips. He closed his eyes. When he opened them, he handed a chip to Zero. "Here, this could be of use to you."

Zero took the chip. "What is it?"

"It holds a command program that will allow you to command Core Demons."

"Oh, like your White Demon?"

Forte nodded and looked at one of the white eagles watching their camp. "Like that one. I think White Demons are easiest to work with. They're loyal and obedient, although they're not the brightest Demons and they get scared easily. There are many types of Core Demons in the world. Some won't accept you as commander until you prove your strength to them. At the very least, the program will discourage any Demon from attacking you."

Now that was handy. Zero could think of several times where a Core Demon had gotten in his way, and the ability to command one to stand aside would have done a world of good. "Thanks. I'll be very careful with it."

* * *

August 2, XX54  
Balna Forest

The children were asleep. Forte lay on his back, awake. He couldn't sleep.

He'd like to say it was because of the Ice Dragon. If they had heard her call earlier, chances were she was still around. Forte had lived long enough in the wilderness that he knew how to hide from her and avoid her attacks. That task was made much more complicated with two small children to watch out for. But that wasn't what kept him awake.

The Dark Hunters also were a real threat to them. His brothers lacked the raw power of a dragon, but made up for it in intelligence and teamwork. But what was so important about these two children that all four of them came out to fetch them? Any one of them could have captured them and made Forte's rescue more difficult. All Forte knew was that there was some plot going on in Wily's forces and he was no longer in a position to know what. But that wasn't keeping him awake either.

He heard soft paws in the snow. On sitting up, Forte saw Gospel, Garnet, and Emerald come into the camp. He spoke to them as a wolf. " _What did you see?"_

Garnet yawned. " _Snow, ice, the usual. Small animals are hiding."_

" _It's very quiet, brother wolf_ ," Gospel said.

" _I know. I haven't heard a single howl_."

" _No, it's very quiet_ ," he emphasized. " _We are approaching a city and it is very quiet."_

This made him think. " _Strange. I hope it is not a bad sign_."

Emerald nuzzled Forte's side. " _Something ails you, father. What is wrong?"_

" _Nothing's wrong_." Forte rubbed Emerald's head and thought of the words the wolves would understand. " _I have reploid pups to guard, but I don't know if you know how that makes me_."

" _We will keep watch, father_ ," Garnet said. " _You rest if you feel ill_."

" _It's not that. But thanks for your thoughts_."

Garnet settled herself to sleep beside Zero, probably thinking she'd keep the smaller 'pup' warm. Gospel and Emerald went back into the woods to keep watch with the others. Forte settled back down and watched the stars. He didn't get a wink of sleep that night.

The boys themselves caused him grief. Not that he would tell them, not yet.

* * *

outside Kykital

X and Zero were fully awake now. The long hours in the sled made them restless and Forte did his best to talk with them and keep them occupied. X and Forte were currently discussing magic in a way that completely lost Zero. Disinterested, he sat in the back and tried to see what was beyond the trees. Doing so, he noticed movement often. "Hey Forte, I think some wolves are following us."

Forte nodded. "I know. I asked them to come."

"You did?"

"They're my pack; the eight wolves and the White Demon are my only companions most of the time. Since I'm taking you to a place close to Balna, you can call on their help if you need it. They'll know how to find me fastest."

X nodded. "Okay, we'll remember that."

"Just be careful about who knows. I'm not welcome in most communities, even to those who only know me as Eldritch Shadetree."

"Your father's reputation stains all, huh?" X asked.

Forte nodded.

Zero leaned over the driver's bench, to ask the question that had been bugging him all along. "So why are you helping us? We can't do anything for you."

"I have my reasons, but most of all I can't stand anyone using children... oh, this isn't good."

Forte stopped the sled at the edge of Balna Forest. On one side was a great frozen sea, the Great Green Sea probably. On the other side was a great frozen city. It looked spectacular. The city was dense with buildings; some of the most beautiful were right by the sea. The whole of the city was surrounded by a thick red sandstone wall, which extended out into the waters for full protection. It may have been lively and bustling at one point, but now it was silent. Everything was coated in a thick layer of silver ice.

X stood up, trying to get a better view. "Is that the work of the Ice Dragon?"

"Without a doubt. There's no other in the world that could completely freeze over a city like Kykital. It's been several months since I've been there, but I thought it was still safe. It had one of the world's strongest shields." Forte paused, then touched his screens. "This is a stroke of bad luck."

"What happened to the people there?" Zero asked, concerned.

"If they were lucky, they got away. If there was a problem with the shields, they would have evacuated everyone immediately. Well, there aren't many cities in this area, but we need to get you to one. We'd best head back to my cabin; I only brought supplies for a few days and I should research the status of other cities."

"That was safe because they didn't expect us there, right?"

"Right. But the longer you stay in Balna, the more likely they'll find us."

"But there's monsters in the woods," X said.

"Monsters?" Zero asked. "We're safe together."

A wolf suddenly howled, joined by two others. Forte looked startled, then set off. But he went to Kykital instead of Balna. "I believe you're right. The wolves say there's danger."

"Is it safe to go there?" Zero asked.

"Not entirely, but it could be a safe hiding spot right..."

The sled suddenly flipped over. Zero wound up under the sled; his body ached slightly, but nothing seemed to be seriously hurt. He sat up and spotted X just ahead of him. "X, you okay?"

X sat up too. "Yeah, I think so."

"You're both under there. Good." Forte walked outside the sled. He tapped the side. "You okay?"

"We're fine," Zero replied.

"You need to be quiet. You'll be safe so long as you're quiet."

"Forte?"

"Hush." He tapped the sled again and a gray mist appeared.

Zero looked at the mist, then looked at X. X put his finger to his lips, then pointed at the shield. Somehow the shield would keep them hidden unless they made a noise. He nodded; they could do this.

"Hey look, it's our lousy good for nothing brother," a loud grating voice said. It was Punk.

"Where have you been for twenty some years?" Enker asked.

"And why aren't you dead?" Quint added. "I was certain I killed you."

"You only thought you killed me," Forte replied tensely. "Now leave me alone; I'm busy."

"You need to come back with us. There are some people you must meet."

"I have my own agenda at the moment."

The Dark Hunters didn't seem pleased to hear this and for several minutes, all the children heard were sounds of fighting. Then Quint said, "You should have just died."

"What are you doing?" Ballade asked. "We were suspicious when we saw someone headed for Kykital."

"I'm conducting some mystical research. I'm not entirely fond of this endless winter, you know. What are you four doing here?"

"We've been sent to find some errant children," Enker said. Then he kicked the sled upright.

X and Zero froze. But they didn't make a sound, so the shield held up. Behind them, the sled made a loud crash as it landed without the jets on.

Enker glared, but didn't seem to see them. Then he turned and walked back to the main group. Now they could see Forte kneeling on the ground, captive to some binding spell. A nasty looking gash was on his right side, which Punk was fixing reluctantly. But Forte hadn't given in easily, as all four Hunters had spell damage of various degrees. Forte didn't look at them; he looked at the ground.

"Have you seen any children lately?" Enker asked.

Sound skeptical, he asked, "Why would there be children in these woods? They couldn't last long here."

"But if they had a survival expert around, say you..." he put his spear to Forte's head.

He kept calm, with an apparent annoyance. "Then why would I be going into Kykital? Not even a teenager would be much help in there."

Quint grabbed Forte's chin and made him look at him. "You don't care for children, is that it? There's no child out there that could tempt you into being protective? These children are in danger and would be much safer with us."

Forte hesitated a moment, but still didn't look in their direction. Then he said, "Well if I knew where they were, I would help them. What do they look like? I know ways to search the woods better than you."

"We'll not work with a traitor," Punk said dangerously, still working on Forte's wound.

"Why am I a traitor?"

"You abandoned your post when father needed you most, coward!" Punk accused.

"Because of your poor conduct, we're stuck in some god-forsaken mountains in a perpetual siege with that Ice Dragon," Enker added. "And everyone thinks of that devil Rock as some legendary hero, so there's no way to defeat him indirectly now."

"Today, we find you hiding out in the woods," Quint finished. "And you're not cooperating with our mission."

"I know I failed Wily, so I put myself in exile," Forte explained. "Besides, if those children were in the woods, I would know. Have you not considered that they might be dead?"

"We would know if they died," Quint said. "We have ways. Now if you're not going to talk..."

"Hold off on him," Ballade spoke up. "We should bring him to meet the current master before punishing him. I'll take him to Ikari Tower and you guys..."

"I'm in charge, Ballade," Quint warned.

"It's just a suggestion."

Quint stood up straight. "Fine. You are the one least likely to knock this traitor's head off before he sees the master. Go quickly; we need to find those children. It's been three days now, so they must be weakening."

Ballade vanished with Forte, then the other three went back into the woods to continue searching.

The two of them were quiet a moment longer. Then Zero asked, "Now what?"

At that, the gray shield vanished. X shrugged. "We don't stand much of a chance alone, like they said."

"But we're not really alone." Zero pointed out the White Demon, which was taking its regular form now. Forte's robotic wolf pack appeared from wherever they had been during the confrontation. The large purple one came up to Zero and gently caught his armor to tug at him. "Hey."

Then the White Demon said, " _I await your word, Master Zero_."

"X, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"It called me Master Zero."

"Forte did give you command of Core Demons. That chip probably includes a translation program."

"Yeah, he did. _Hey Demon, do you know of anywhere safe to go?"_

" _No_ ," the Demon answered. " _Forte's cabin is two days travel, but the Hunters are in the woods_."

Zero repeated this to X. But X was looking off at Kykital, with his eyes unfocused. Zero tugged at his arm. "X, we have to figure out somewhere to go. Anywhere, just not where the Hunters are. Although... that city does look dangerous."

"There were people living there," X said.

"Yeah, but they got attacked by that Dragon."

He pointed to the northeast. "No, they got away. They went that way. I'm not sure how, but somehow I can see the people and the path they took."

"Your third eye? Can we use that to get somewhere safe?"

"We could. The refugees knew where they were going. They knew where safety was."

Zero looked off at the direction X was pointing out. "It could take weeks, like Forte said."

"Well we either go where the Hunters are looking for us or we go where they don't expect us to go. But I don't think the sled is working right now."

The underside was no longer glowing and the bottom looked cracked where Enker had kicked it. "No problem, I can handle that." Then Zero turned to the White Demon. " _Hey, can you turn back into those horses? Unless you have a faster form."_

" _No, that's my fastest transformation_." The White Demon turned to gel, then reappeared as the two white horses. Now that Zero looked at it, one horse had the core in its forehead and the other looked normal. " _I will go where you wish and the wolves will follow_."

" _Good_." He stopped speaking Demon to tell X, "It can go as fast as the sled was going."

"Okay, then let's get what we can from the supplies left. Hopefully we can manage."

They gathered what had been left, especially anything that looked like food. Then Zero told the Demon, " _X knows where we're going_."

" _Then he should ride the core horse. I cannot speak with him, but I can understand him. You ride the other horse and it will follow_."

Zero related that information, then ordered the Demon to help them up. X made sure he could see the phantom trail. So while the Dark Hunters were searching Balna Forest, the children were riding northeast, far from them.

* * *

 

August 2, XX54  
Monsteropolis

The Cain family lived in an apartment, just like most others in Monsteropolis. However, it seemed that they owned a much larger apartment than most. The Cains lived in the penthouse apartment of one of the central buildings, far above where David worked as head of Monsteropolis City Guardians. Their apartment took up two whole floors plus the roof. David had built a greenhouse up there for produce and even had fruit trees. Sigma suspected that certain closed off rooms were for tree roots.

Sigma had his own room and for being the reploid child of a human family, it was lavish. He had a four post bed with curtains of spaceships and stars. He had his own IC (image computer) station, supposedly monitored by his parents. Not well, as Sigma found it easy to bypass their security blocks. He had his own food replicator. It didn't make things as good as the real stuff, but it made some very nice artificial sweets.

Best of all, he had an interesting elaborate toy set: a holographic battle simulator. It was made up of a six foot cube of hologram projectors, which could form any setting he wished. The basic set came with two armies of twelve soldiers each. In his inventory, Sigma had an additional 120 units in various races and forms to add to his battles. These soldier pieces could be placed on the holographic battleground and would stand directly on the holograms, no matter how Sigma configured the land. Once the land and obstacles were set and the soldier pieces arranged, he could control the flow of battle from a console unit. Each soldier had unique statistics and experience; numbers generally decided the fights, but skill, strategy, and a little luck helped. Or if he wasn't feeling violent, he could just develop a village with its own economy and needs. And then come in later with barbarians and slaughter the peaceful villagers. It was quite fun.

Currently, he was working with a preset battle. There was an icy mountain fort that he could either defend or overthrow. Checking the options, he was disappointed in that he couldn't add weather effects, like a biting cold wind or falling snow. He wondered which side to play, if the main obstacle was the icy slopes. Neither side seemed to have an advantage.

"There's a trick to that scenario," Roger said from behind Sigma. "Depending on who you play, of course."

Sigma looked back, startled. He hadn't heard the human come in. "What are you doing here?"

"Just dropping by."

"You're supposed to knock, you know."

"Eh, we're brothers. Who cares?" He knelt down by the battle set, looking quite interested in the set-up.

"It's rude."

"Well sorry. Didn't know you were being touchy today. You want to battle with me? If you don't want me in here, we can always go use my set." He winked, as if it were a temptation to use Roger's set over Sigma's.

Sigma did not want to play with a human, but Roger was being persistent and stubborn about not leaving. Besides, it would be good to show him up. After some back and forth, Sigma picked his twelve favorite units and went to Roger's room to battle him.

Much to his annoyance, Roger's battle set did have weather effects. "Why can't my set do that?"

"It's an extra program you have to buy. Dad thought it was frivolous, so I had to use my own money. But check this out: you can completely freeze a guy to death if conditions are right. Or set random lightning bolts and take a gamble that your side won't be hit, but the other will."

Sigma watched as Roger concocted a fierce thunderstorm with hail, heavy rain, high winds, and lightning. The little holo-bolts even made a noisy crash when they struck. "That's neat. Do you think I could get this program?"

"Maybe if you save your allowance for an entire year. Or maybe if you're really really good from now on, you can get one for Christmas."

Sigma glared at him for the way he said that. "You're being a jerk now."

Annoyingly, Roger tousled his hair. "Well what's eating you?"

"I'm telling you the truth."

"No, I mean it." Roger seemed genuinely concerned. "You've been acting so odd lately, just staying in your room and not talking to anyone. It's not like you. Do you miss mom that much?"

"I've been feeling strange lately..." Sigma stopped himself. Half of him was touched by his brother's concern; the other half was massively irritated at that same concern. It was a familiar feeling by now. His so-called human father talked down to him all the time and he felt split over cheerfully doing as David said and hating both his own obedience and cheer. And Roger here talked to him almost as an equal. That was worse sometimes. Reploids were naturally better than humans. Although humans never realized it, reploids had been built to replace humans.

Roger smiled at him. "What's wrong little brother? You can tell me."

"Why do you keep calling me that? It's not proper."

"Proper?"

Now his head felt literally split. It hurt like hell. "Just leave me alone!" Sigma ran out of the room.

Roger came after him and somehow caught up. "Hold on, let's just talk this out."

Hating this child body, Sigma glared at Roger. "We're not the same; we're not brothers."

Much to his surprise, Roger looked hurt by this. "Now don't be silly. We are brothers. Our parents gave life to both of us, so our souls are connected as family. It doesn't matter what we are. We love each other and we're a family."

His older brother believed that firmly, had never questioned it. As crazy as this world seemed, it needed someone like him to come along and straighten things out. Sigma tugged at his hair and twisted it around his fingers. It was still odd to think he had hair now. But he was also stuck in a 'family' situation that went against his every belief. If he ever found that Domino guy, he'd make that fool suffer.

Roger took his shoulders. "Just tell me what's wrong, Sigma. I'm worried about you."

And this fool wasn't going to leave him alone. "My head hurts," he finally answered. "Like there's some battle in there."

Chuckling, Roger hugged him. "Aw, that must be terrible. Come on; we'll find you some medicine and then you should probably take a nap."

Sigma took Roger's hand and followed. If he was in his proper body, he'd blow this kid's brains out. But as he wasn't, he took the advice and had a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is one point in this chapter that I realized might really confuse some people and it wouldn't get a good explanation for some time. When I decided to have reploid children in this story, I had to come up with rules for that childhood development. So, from my notes, here's how reploid aging for children works: For any child under 6 years old, double their age for approximate human equivalent. Children from 6 to 9 remain in preadolescence. Adolescence itself lasts for age 10 to age 13. At 13, the reploid is considered a legal adult.  
> Zero says he just turned 3 years old, so he's around 6 years old in human terms. X is 3 and a half, so he's approximately 7. Sigma is 5, so he's around 9-10 in development.  
> Hope that helps.  
> My decision on using American or Japanese names for canon characters basically boiled down to what I liked better for that character.


	5. Snow Fields Crossing

August 2, XX54  
Northeast of Kykital

The ride across the snow fields was mind numbing. Hour after hour, horizon to horizon, there was snow. Sometimes there were trees, sometimes even evergreens. But evergreen or bare, they were also covered in snow. The sky was gray with clouds, the sun only a hazy spot of orange. Zero knew the Demon was traveling as fast as it could, but it seemed they were crawling at a snail's pace.

Late in the day, they spotted something ahead of them. An hour after sunset, they reached the frozen caravan of trucks. "What happened to them?" Zero asked.

X closed his eyes. "They were the last to leave and left too late. But..."

"But what?"

He opened his eyes and pointed around. "There should be frozen corpses all over. Someone's been here since and taken everything away."

The Demon horse whinnied and growled. Zero growled back at it, then said, "X, the Demon says there's some dangerous water vortex coming. It suggests hiding in the trucks."

"Sounds good to me."

They got into the one that looked safest, with the least amount of damage. It was empty, but X went out to another truck to get a wooden crate. With that and some magic, he was able to get a fire started. While he was doing that, Zero took supplies out of the bags to see what they had. The Demon turned into a large snake and curled up in back. The wolfoids found them and got into the truck as well.

X's fire warmed the truck up nicely. He turned to Zero, who was looking over the things. "So what do we have?"

"Not much. About a dozen snack bars, some bags of dried fruit, a bag of jerky, two of those instant meal things, and some sort of energy drink powder. And then we have a flashlight, five flares, three canteens, and a pocketknife."

"And we can't be sure how long this will take."

"I did see the wolfoids catch a rabbit, or something."

"They'll be fine. Do you know how to skin and prepare a rabbit?"

Zero shook his head. "We never had to know things like that before."

"I hope we'll be fine. Let's go fill those canteens with snow."

"Um, how about you do that? The Demon is really spooked and I should probably try calming it down."

"Okay, go ahead." X grabbed the canteens and went out.

Now that he knew magic, it was easy to stuff snow into the canteens, melt the snow, and then stuff more snow in until they were full of water. As he was finishing the last one, he heard a howling sound. But it wasn't wolves; it was the vortex.

X calculated that it was about a mile wide, like a giant moving waterfall. Only the water wasn't coming down; it was going up. It was moving dangerously fast. X scrambled back into the truck. "It's here! It's like some backwards hurricane."

"Backwards hurr..." the vortex struck.

The wind and water were indeed going up into the sky. The truck shuddered and shook, but didn't budge. The fire roared out of the truck, trying to keep its air. For a moment, it seemed like one pull of air would take Zero with it, but then the Demon reached out and grabbed both children. The eight wolfoids all huddled together

There was a pause and X realized he was gasping for breath. The air was very thin. But before anyone passed out, a downdraft hit, of cold dry air. After five minutes of that, it was all quiet.

"That was terrible," Zero said, with his hand to his chest.

"That wasn't it," X said. "If this is like a backwards hurricane, there will be another part."

"I guess. Hey, check that out." He pointed out of the truck.

Most of the snow and ice were gone. "Huh. I guess it's logical, if a bit weird."

"I wonder why it does that."

X thought about it, but another problem came into his mind. "Zero, no matter what happens, we have to stick together. And we must never forget who we really are or where we came from."

Zero was puzzled. "Why's that? You don't just forget who you are."

"Under normal circumstances, but this is far from normal. We're in another world, with magic. And if all my fantasy books hold some truth to this type of world, we could really forget. There's several of those stories where the main character gets transported, and if he or she forgets about home, that character can never go back."

"I see. Then we'll have to remember a lot... is there anything in your books about returning home?"

"Yeah, but it gets more complicated. There are so many stories and so many ways. Even if you restrict it to one set of worlds, like the Oz series, there's at least a dozen ways there to move back and forth. We could have to use a magical device or spell similar to how we got here."

"I only saw a white light after that kid talked to us."

"Me too. We could have to use a place that is in both worlds."

"There's Ikari Tower, but we know that place is very dangerous in this world."

"Right. We could have to finish a quest here. He did mention two monsters."

"Like the hydra, or like the Ice Dragon? And if it is the Ice Dragon, what other monster is there powerful enough to battle her?"

X shrugged. "Maybe Dr. Wily himself? I mean, Forte wasn't able to give us a straight answer on his father. He could still be alive here. And since Shadow Palace is a place of nightmares and illusions, it's possible we have to return there for the way back to our home. There's a lot of options right now, and I'm not sure which is right."

"Well, I'll leave that to you, since you read fantasy books a lot."

"I'll have to study the way magic works here... don't worry, everyone transported has some purpose being here. That's the way it always works. Maybe we'll need your strength."

He frowned. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm practically powerless now. This armor's too flimsy for battle, the blade I have is worth squat, and I have a broom."

X blinked. "A broom?"

"Exactly what I thought of it."

"There might be something..."

Any further conversation was cut off by the second half of the vortex. This one was milder than the first, but lasted longer. When it was over, they prepared a meal packet and shared it.

Zero yawned. "I'm really tired."

X watched as the wolfoids slipped out of the truck. The demon turned itself into a gargoyle and perched on the edge of the door. "Forte's children are watching us. We can sleep here."

* * *

August 5, XX54  
Trade Route 370

Three days into their snowy trek. Most of the time, there was nothing to see. This moment was notable because there was something different an hour or so after noon. Their path went by a small town.

It had been abandoned long ago. Wooden buildings had collapsed into rotting piles, where molds and fungus were surviving the constant cold. The one metal building had cracked apart, leaving long jagged edges. The brick and stone buildings had fared better, but some had collapsed from the sheer weight of ice.

But most interesting was an old marble fountain along the road. It was easy to see what it had once been. In an artistic perfection, the silver ice had captured the water's flow perfectly. A thin sheet of ice curved in a glittering but silent cascade. X felt the only thing holding that form whole was magic.

"That's kind of beautiful," Zero said. "But this ghost town is creepy too."

"I agree. But it makes me wonder. What does the Ice Dragon gain from freezing this whole world?"

"We can't know that now. Now we have to get somewhere safe."

"Yeah. Let's keep going."

* * *

August 7

Five days into their snowy trek. They were making camp at sundown because there was shelter here, of sorts. Alongside the road, there was steel structure, basically a roof on four posts and a fireplace. Above the fireplace was a seal. It was formed as a shield with a sword through the middle, an S on the left side, and a P on the right. A gargoyle was holding the sword at the bottom. It was the Snow Patrol's seal, they figured.

They had run across such structures every night except the first which they spent in the frozen caravan. "Forte said something about trade routes," Zero said, as they weren't too tired tonight to talk. "You think this is one?"

"That would make sense. The phantoms seem to suggest this is, or was, a well traveled route."

"Maybe we'll run into somebody."

"Maybe. Check this out." He pointed up to the icicles. "From the way those are formed at the bottom, I'm certain somebody has been here recently, to break off all the icicles. Like there was somebody at the frozen caravan to take the corpses. And the fireplaces have all been recently used."

"Well, at least we're traveling at the same rate they were, since we find one of these every night. Here, this is for tonight." He offered some dried fruit.

"Thanks." But both of them knew that eating as little as they were was not working. They were always hungry.

Zero checked on his hair; there was a coating of frost on the ends. "Do you know how much longer we have?"

"No. I wish they had a map in here. Or something that would tell us that."

"If this is a trade route, they would already know." Two of the wolfoids howled. Gospel, who was next to them, turned his ears and got up cautiously. "I wish we knew what they mean."

"That sounded like their danger bark. And I feel nervous too."

There was a loud roar, followed by threatening barks by the wolfoids. Outside of the shelter, there was a Cyclops. It was nine feet tall with gray skin and an eye two feet wide. The Cyclops attacked the wolfoids with a large club. As a group, the pack retaliated with small violet or green rays. Then the White Demon dropped from the roof to fire a large yellow beam. But it seemed the giant had thick and tough skin.

Zero stood up and pulled out Dusty Blade, but he didn't activate it. "I'm not sure... I'm not really in condition to fight, especially not with this dull thing..."

X felt terrified, especially upon remembering stories of these giants. But there was always their greatest weakness. "Zero? Tell your Demon to attack the Cyclops in the eye."

"The eye? Okay." Then he howled out to the Demon.

The Demon growled back, then nailed the Cyclops in the eye with its next yellow beam. The Cyclops shrieked in a tone and volume that hurt even the Demon's ears. It ran off, stumbling every few steps. The wolfoids and Demon didn't bother chasing it.

"That was it?" Zero asked. "Kinda disappointing for a monster."

"Well anything with an eye that big won't fight with an eye injury."

"That's true. But it's good to know."

"What is?"

"We're safe with the wolves and Demon with us."

* * *

August 10

Eight days into their snowy trek. Over a week in the snow fields. At this point, Zero really hated winter. He also really missed having an internal temperature regulator. And he really wished he could drop the need to eat. Although it had been nice at one point, it was making things even more difficult than they needed to be.

The wolfoids and the Demon kept monsters away from the shelters, so X and Zero could deal with the more pressing issue of their diminished supplies. Zero had gotten into the habit of searching the shelters for stored away food. Surely they would leave something to assist lost people. But there was nothing.

"Hey Zero, come here," X said.

He left the fire's warmth reluctantly to go to the post X was examining. "What is it?"

Although he had to stand on this toes, he pointed it out. "It's a hole and a wire."

"I can see that."

"This wire looks like our standard for communications."

"Really? Is it connected so we can get through somehow?"

X shook his head. "No. They... they took out the communications to these shelters."

Zero felt mad. "Well that's not helpful."

"You can't see..."

Zero looked at X. His eyes seemed unfocused, like when he had first noticed the phantom trade route. "X?"

"This was a busy place once. This shelter has strong memories..."

Zero shook him. "We have problems now we have to deal with."

"Be careful... of... the river dragon."

"The river dragon?"

Then X's eyes came back to the present. "Something I feel. A warning for the way we're going. So what do we have left?"

They walked back over to the fireplace. "The last dried fruit, that nasty energy drink, and the bag of jerky. I figure if we have the last of the fruit tonight and split the jerky up over several days, we could stretch it."

X took the small handful of assorted fruits. "I'm really hungry."

"Well if those jerks hadn't pulled the communications... and they probably took the emergency supplies too."

"We'll try your plan."

* * *

August 11  
River Vesper Bridge

The Demon stopped abruptly in front of the bridge, nearly throwing X. It whinnied and stamped its hooves. " _I don't like this, Master Zero. Something's not right_."

"The Demon's nervous," Zero told X.

"I don't blame it," X said, getting himself straightened up.

The suspension bridge crossed a wide river gorge, possibly two hundred yards across. The river was fifty feet below and it was completely frozen. Wide and paved, the bridge was about the equivalent of a four lane highway. Icicles hung off the bridge, but didn't gather on the suspension cables. Strangest of all were the newest icicles, shooting off the towers for three to eight feet nearly perpendicular to the ground. These icicles, and the topmost layer of ice, were all silver in color.

Curious, Zero touched a silver icicle on a lamppost. It felt like an ordinary icicle and broke off into his hand. He handed it to X. "Does this mean the Ice Dragon has been here recently?"

X took the icicle, but he felt something different about this ice. He wasn't sure how, but there was a sense of madness to it. In that, it reminded him of the true Zero virus. He threw the icicle away. "I would assume so, since Kykital was covered in silver ice."

"So is the bridge safe now?"

"Well we haven't heard her... and look, there's some snow on the silver ice. I think we're okay in crossing now. Maybe we just need to walk the Demon across, like one does with nervous horses."

"Okay." Zero got off and began calming the Demon down. " _We'll be fine_ ," he told it.

" _Silver ice is not good_ ," it replied. But it followed Zero.

The boot add-ons Forte had given them helped, even on the silver ice. The Demon put spikes on its hooves and never slipped. And the wolfoids managed to find the path of least resistance on the bridge, so the ice gave them no problems.

X recalled the warning he had gotten indirectly: beware of the river dragon. But he wasn't sure if that meant anything, or if the phantoms were just confusing him. It seemed quiet. Halfway across, the Demon balked at going any further. Zero growled at it softly, but he shook his head to X. There was something here the Demon did not like.

X looked ahead and noticed the rest of the bridge was hazy. Hazy? It was too cold for it to be a real haze. "Something's here," he said quietly.

The haze thickened and roared. It became a river dragon. Filling the rest of the bridge from nose to tail, it was blue-green in color, with shining scales, claws the size of broadswords, teeth the size of daggers, and cold glittering eyes. Its feet were webbed and its back had a long stiff fin. " _Welcome, fools_ ," the dragon greeted.

Zero stared at it. "Is that the Ice Dragon or the river dragon?"

"I think the river... _are you the guardian of this river?"_

The dragon raised her head in surprise, then leaned closer to sniff them. " _I am. I am Guardian Valera of the River Vesper, which lies below you."_

" _I see_." Feeling he'd better get Valera into a good mood, he added, " _It must be difficult on you, to have your river frozen like that_."

She snorted. " _I hate it. Oh, it's always a pain when winter comes around and my river becomes sluggish. But to have the winter never end and my river frozen to the very bottom... ugh. I wish someone would find that silly Ice Dragon and get rid of her."_

"Are you talking to that dragon?" Zero said quietly. "Your voice sounds really strange."

"Does it? This is Valera, Guardian of the River Vesper. I'll try to get us past."

"Careful." For a moment, he wondered if that's how he sounded when talking to the Demon.

Valera looked at Zero. " _You make an odd traveling party. Who are you and where are you going?"_

" _I'm X and this is my best friend Zero. We're being chased by some enemies, so we're following this trade route to a safe place."_

" _Not many safe places. Not by my river, at least."_

So they had further to go. " _I see. Well, we need to cross the bridge to continue on our way. May we cross?"_

" _Hmmm... I'd like that Core Demon to go; always hated them. And those wolves are awful mangy and scruffy. But you now... I haven't had meat in years_." She sniffed them.

" _B-but we're reploids_." X was thinking of what the closet monster had said, though. Perhaps other predators had done the same, gaining abilities to eat mechanical beings.

" _I know that. I normally eat land animals by my river if I want meat; sometimes even humans if I feel like it. And your race is partially organic, you know. Just enough, and I don't have to eat a rock later for digestion. It's been several long years_."

X felt scared, but knew fighting was not an option here. He had to talk her out of eating them. " _And we're just kids. We can't be much to a large creature like you_."

" _That's true. You're barely a mouthful, even both of you at once_." Still, she ran her tongue over her lips.

Zero looked at the dragon, then at X. Should he order the Demon to attack the dragon? He didn't trust the look in that dragon's eyes, and X looked scared again. But he had no idea what the conversation was about. Well, if something happened, he'd know it or X would tell him. Zero patted the Demon's side, trying to keep it from bolting.

" _So we're not really worth it_ ," X told Valera. " _Could we just cross? We are being chased, by some adult reploids, so maybe you could catch one of them..."_

" _Maybe, maybe not. Don't worry, X. I don't eat anyone who can talk to me. I'll let you pass. But just you_." She looked greedily at Zero.

X was stumped for a moment. What should he do now? Should he tell Valera that the Demon was following Zero's orders, so that if she ate him, it would attack her? How powerful was a White Demon compared to other Core Demons? Or to a regular river dragon? Or maybe... " _If you just miss the taste of meat, we do have some jerky_."

She looked interested. " _Jerky? How nice. A small delicacy, but a nice one."_

He pulled out the bag. " _Although it's all the food that we have, and we have no idea when we'll find a safe place to stay_."

" _If you don't mind any place so long as it's safe, why don't you come with me to my home cave? It's plenty safe there; no one in their right mind would attack a dragon's cave. And it's been forever since I've had someone to talk to. I can talk human languages, if it suits me, so we could keep each other company and tell stories. I have some enchanted fruit trees that I'll share; although one tires of them after twenty years, they would do you both some good."_

That was an idea. X was tempted for a moment, but looked at Valera's eye. There was greed still there. She would eat Zero the first chance she got. And it was likely she'd eat X too, if she got tired of his company. He thought over what she was offering and came up with an idea. " _Can our wolves and Demon come too? They need safe keeping as well_."

" _I'd rather not_ ," she replied with strained patience. " _The wolves are all stringy meat and mechanics and the Demon is completely inedible... erm, I mean, a completely uncouth houseguest. Yes, that's it. Very poor manners, those Core Demons_."

" _In that case, you'd better let us move on_."

She tapped a foot on the bridge. " _If you're leaving, you have to leave Zero behind_."

" _Here, I'll make you a deal. I'll give you the jerky, although we could use some of those enchanted fruits to replace it, if you let me take Zero, the wolves, and our Demon across the bridge. And I'll come back to talk to you sometime later, because I can understand that you'd get lonely stuck out here all by yourself. So..."_

Valera half-closed her eyes, considering. " _Hold up there, motor mouth, stop confusing me. This awful winter, and my river being completely frozen, I can't think as fast as I used to_."

Bingo.

" _Okay, let me get this straight... you'll give me the jerky and take your miserable pets with you if I give you some grapes and let you take Zero too?"_

" _And I'll come back to talk to you, sometime when it's safe_."

" _Hmmm... I always loved company_."

X opened the bag of jerky, hoping the smell would reach her.

" _That could be... yes, it is a fair deal. Wait right there and I'll get the fruit_." She took off and flew under the bridge.

"Can we go now?" Zero asked.

"Don't move until I say so. I'm working out a trade."

A minute later, Valera poked her head over the suspension cable. She gently dropped a branch with two bunches of clear blue grapes. " _There you are. Now give me that jerky. Please_." She opened her mouth.

X picked up the grapes and then fed her the entire bag of jerky. " _Thank you, Valera_."

" _Mmm, that's some beautiful smoked beef jerky. Can't see why you want those wimpy fruits over this marvelous jerky. Now listen closely: you may split the bunches between you and eat as many as you please. Except one_."

" _One?"_

" _Always leave one grape on the bunch, or you'll be sorry."_

" _Okay, I'll remember that. I'll be back to talk with you sometime_."

" _I'll be waiting. And bring more of that jerky_." She dropped beneath the bridge again.

X came back over and handed Zero one of the grape bunches. "Here you go. Now let's go before she figures out the deal I made her."

Zero tugged at the Demon and it started following him again. "Did you just give away all our jerky for some grapes?"

"Enchanted grapes." He plucked one off and ate it. It was juicy and sweet. "It's pretty good."

"So they're safe?"

"Sure."

"Okay, but I don't know." Zero ate one. "It is good, but still..."

"Oh, and you must leave one grape on the bunch."

"Why's that?"

"That's just what Valera said. She didn't explain it."

Zero shrugged. "I guess if the dragon says so." They walked across the bridge and ate a few more grapes. Once across the bridge, the Demon was fine with carrying them again.

It had been dark for nearly an hour by the time they found the next shelter. X worked quickly to raise and keep a fire in the fireplace, so Zero noticed first. "Hey, all the grapes I ate have grown back."

X looked at Zero's bunch, then checked his own. All the grapes that he had taken off and eaten were back. "Now that's nice. Although I can see why she was getting tired of them."

"You made an excellent deal back there."

"You have no idea."

* * *

August 17  
Trade Route 370

Fifteen days into their snowy trek, and it was snowing. Visibility was down to a few feet ahead; Zero sometimes lost sight of X on the core horse. But the secondary horse was following the core instinctively, so he didn't worry about losing him. Cold winds blew and got under their cloaks, chilling them to the core. X tried to think of spells to keep warm. He cast a shield called A-ice on both of them. While it helped some, they were still cold.

And hungry. The enchanted grapes helped, since they knew they had a constant food source, but they could only have a few every six hours. Eating the grapes didn't help being cold either, because the fruits got chilled. Never frozen, but so close that eating one was no longer pleasant.

X kept checking the phantoms, trying to hear things like he had in the shelter. In particular, he wanted to know how much longer they had to a safe and warm place. But the third eye was tricky to use, and didn't guarantee that he'd learn something useful.

Right now, it was showing him inside a bus, where a human child and a reploid child were playing Tetris to pass the time. X patiently endured an hour of watching the two children place the colored blocks in hopes of beating the other. Worst of all, he felt a pang in his stomach as the children snacked idly on a trail mix, not worried one bit about their food supply. He thought of ending the ghostly vision and watching the road ahead, but it wouldn't go away.

The reploid child looked up from the game for a moment and asked, "Mommy, when are we gonna get there?"

X paid closer attention, but the vision decided to end right there. He grumbled. Magic wasn't always helpful, he thought.

Then he heard a woman's scream and Zero yelling, "Scram!"

The core horse slowed for a moment so X could check on him. "What was that about?"

"Well I was eating my... my grapes!" Zero looked around frantically. "Oh great, did I drop them?"

The two Demon horses halted so they could check the ground, but the falling snow made it difficult to see. "I don't know if we can find them in this snow storm. But you can share my grapes, if you want." X pulled out his bunch.

As he held them out, the screaming returned. A flurry of ragged brown feathers dropped right into X's lap. For a moment, X stared at the scowling face of a woman inches in front of him. He screamed and the woman-thing snatched his grapes before flying away.

Zero activated Dusty Blade, but she was gone. "That was it! That was the thing... it must have stolen my grapes too."

"Th-that was a harpy. Th-they travel in large groups..."

Then three harpies ambushed them at once. One attacked X by grabbing his supply bag and trying to bolt. X responded quickly with a fireball before recalling that he was carrying the bag with the flares. As he heard hissing, he attempted to get rid of it. The harpy screamed as she caught on fire, but got the bag. A few feet away, the flares exploded in all directions.

Zero was caught in a tug of war with one of the harpies as the other tried to heckle him. One of the flares blasted itself into the heckling harpy; Zero managed to swipe at it with Dusty Blade as it was stunned. Immediately, it started screaming in pain, which made the White Demon decide this was too much. It ran off. The harpy grabbing Zero's bag was startled, but so was Zero and he let go first. She squealed, noticed the state her sisters were in, and decided to keep the bag and leave.

X grabbed hold of the Demon's mane and tried to look through the snow. "Zero! You okay?"

"Gross!" Zero called back. He came into view. "One of them peed on me."

"Stop, Demon," X commanded. It obeyed. X got off. "Here, we'd better get that cleaned up."

They cleaned up Zero's left arm of the goopy yellow and white mess. It stunk like rotting garbage. "Those creatures were disgusting."

"They're ravenous monsters. They only care about food. If you have enough, they'll eat until their stomachs burst. But I don't think we have the right stuff to fully get this cleaned. You're going to stink."

Zero made a gagging face. "Oh great. And they stole my bag."

"Mine too." X looked back into the thickly falling snow. They could hear one of the harpies still yowling a death cry. There were other screams and terrible noises. "I don't think we'll be able to get anything back."

Pulling his cloak close, Zero shivered. "So how much longer do we have to go?"

If that vision had to tease him with trail mix, it could have at least told him that information. "I don't know. We just have to go on and hope it's not much longer."

* * *

August 19

Seventeen days, two without food now. The snow and sun were blinding because there were no clouds out today. Zero drank some water, then closed his eyes. As there was little else to do, he was recalling old battles he had fought. He thought of fighting Colonel and all the hell that had unleashed...

The demon whinnied. " _You two are being quiet_."

Zero opened his eyes and noticed the sky darkening, finally. " _We don't feel like talking. Is the shelter nearby?"_

" _Not yet, but look ahead_."

Ahead? There had been nothing for days now... Zero looked along the road anyways. In the distance, there was a dark blot in the snow, too regular in appearance to be natural. Zero nudged the secondary horse ahead and tapped X. "Hey, look at that."

"Huh?" X sat up and looked. "There's something..."

"I don't see one of the shelters, but that looks bigger. What is it?"

X's eyes unfocused, as they did when he was looking for the phantoms. Then he looked excited. "That's the place! That's the place they were headed. Everyone was glad to see it."

"Great! I hope they have food."

"No kidding. Well come on." X urged the Demon on faster.

Zero heard a few of the wolves barking. He looked to the side to see they were stopping. "What's with the wolves?"

" _They're creatures of wilderness, even as robots_ ," the Demon answered. " _I'll follow you to your goal, but they must find a place to hide and rest_."

" _Are you going to be okay? It shouldn't take long to get there, but we usually have stopped by now_."

" _Appearances are deceptive in this flat area, Master Zero. It will take some time. But don't fear for me. I can make it easily."_

" _Okay_." He switched back to normal language to tell X, "The Demon says it'll take a while, but it's fine."

"Good. We'll rest there."

Zero was patient. The night went on. And on. And on. After what seemed to be an eternity, the sky began to lighten again and they still weren't there. Zero felt stiff from riding all day and all night. He felt weak and tired too, but they were almost there. Wherever there was...

* * *

August 20  
near Fort Madeline

The eighteenth day broke with a loud cry, like a wounded bird. The Ice Dragon had found them.

Panicking, the Demon melted itself. A silver beam flew overhead, at the level they would have been on the horses. Zero picked himself up and looked for the Demon in the snow. " _Calm down and help us_ ," he pleaded.

X ran back to him. "This can't be happening! She'll kill us!"

Zero would have liked to tell him, "You calm down as well," but he was scared too. Their enemy could freeze an entire city. They were currently small children, tired and hungry after a long journey. This was so unfair. Closing his eyes for a moment, Zero wished dearly that this was just some crazy nightmare.

The White Demon reformed as a floating eyeball. " _I'll do what I can,"_ it told Zero. Then it fired a yellow beam at the Ice Dragon. It didn't seem to bother her too much. She replied with a jagged monolith of an icicle, casting it straight into the Demon's core. It shattered, killing the Demon instantly. Then she looked at the children and shrieked a warning of a fatal strike.

"I'm not sure... even as adults..." X was shaking. Even if they could get back to their adult selves, did they even have time now?

Zero suddenly went from feeling bitter cold to scalding hot. The sudden change was enough of a shock to make him fall onto his knees. Underneath him, the snow began to hiss and evaporate.

X's attention went immediately to Zero, as his third eye showed ruby red flames that had engulfed him. Zero looked up at him and his eyes seemed to be blazing. "Z-Zero?" Then the ruby red flame manifested itself, surrounding both of them and rising quickly. It was gone in less than a minute. In the sky, the Ice Dragon all paused to consider her new competitor: a dragon made of living fire.

This Fire Dragon seemed to be made of just flames. X could see the clouds through his body. And those clouds reflected the ruby light coming from the dragon. He was very different from Valera. However, the Ice Dragon was also very different from Valera. While she seemed as big as both Valera and the Fire Dragon, the Ice Dragon was wearing body armor made of ice. The actual Ice Dragon... all X could see of her was a blue blur inside the main torso, much smaller than the dragons he had seen so far. But she was agile, fast, and powerful.

The two Dragons started fighting each other with power beams. X turned his attention to Zero. "Come on; let's go while they're distracted! That place isn't far now."

Zero made groggy noises and looked around in confusion. "Huh?"

Grabbing his arm, X noticed that his friend was strangely hot. "Come on."

He got up and let X pull him along. But the snow made things difficult. A spell came to X's mind and he cast it. On their feet, a white glow briefly appeared. Snow walking, he thought, would allow them to walk on snow like pavement. Good. He tried to hurry Zero along.

But they had to stop suddenly as another monolithic icicle crashed into the ground ahead of them. It was followed quickly by six others; one hit a steel tower and shredded it like paper. Then a bright white beam hit the ground some distance to their right. The snow instantly vaporized; the dirt and rocks underneath melted. If these were the two monsters they were supposed to fight, then even with their adult forms and magic, it would take supernatural luck to beat them.

Or was the Fire Dragon a guardian of Zero? The thought crossed X's mind. Zero was too disoriented to communicate. It had come from him...

His thoughts were interrupted by cannon fire from the place ahead. The Ice Dragon razzed the fort. As this fight wasn't worth it to her, she took off. The Fire Dragon paused to consider his options.

Zero stumbled again, but X let him go this time. Looking up to the Fire Dragon, he switched over to the dragon's tongue. " _We thank you for helping us_."

Noticing his words, the Fire Dragon looked back down at the two reploid children. He roared a war cry and dove down to attack them. No, this was not a guardian dragon.

X tried to run, or scream, or something. But he was caught in the dragon's eyes and couldn't move. He tried to close his eyes. Instead, he watched as the Fire Dragon got ready to fry them...

Again, the cannons fired, this time nailing the Fire Dragon. It howled in pain and fell. On top of them? X kept watching, frozen to the spot.

The Fire Dragon vanished. A gust of hot air hit them and melted the snow. Astoundingly, they were still alive. X knelt down and nudged Zero. "Zero, what happened? Do you know?"

"Uuhhh..." his temperature had returned to being cold. His skin tingled as though it had burned. Zero closed his eyes. "Let me sleep."

"Zero!" X shook him, but nothing came of it. Zero went to sleep.

Tired, hungry, and cold himself, X sat down next to him. He looked at the fort which they had come so far to reach. It was close, but... he should go fetch someone to get Zero, but... he was tired and weak too, and his body felt light. No, he had to get them both inside. X made himself get up, get out of the melted hole, and walk up to the gate.

Even with the snow walking enchantment, it was difficult. The sun was high enough behind the fort to reach X's eyes. Blinded like that, he first heard the person walking in front of him. X stopped as the tall skinny reploid came to him. He had dark green armor, sort of like a uniform, and dark purple hair. "So you're not an illusion," he said. "What's a kid like you doing out in the snow?"

He looked back to where Zero was. "Please sir, me and my friend are being chased by the Dark Hunters. We had to come here, from Kykital."

"Kykital?" he asked, stunned. "Gracious, nobody but our group has been down Route 370 in five months."

"We had to..."

"Where is your friend?"

Pointing over to the melted area, he answered, "Zero's in that patch of melted snow; he got hurt. I'm X."

"Really? X and Zero?"

X felt confused. Like with Forte, he had no clue who this person was. "Yes... do you know us? We were both kidnapped, as infants."

"No, but I knew some people like you. I'm Special Intelligence Agent Hirondelle. Sit tight for now; that gate takes a long while to open. I'll be back with Zero in a bit." Hirondelle ran off to get Zero.

He waited. The gate made some noises, but it was still working on opening as Hirondelle came back, carrying Zero. The agent seemed to be lost in thought. "Is he okay?"

"He seems stable, but I'm no healer. Did you happen to see the... dragons, X?"

He nodded. "I saw both of them. They killed our White Demon."

"In that case, we'd like to interview you later. But let's get you both checked over and given a hot meal. Will that work?"

X smiled. "That'll be great. Thank you."

Hirondelle winked. "No problem. The Snow Patrol is always ready to help."

* * *

August 20, XX54  
Fort Madeline

"This is Fort Madeline," Hirondelle said as the gate finally opened. "It's responsible for keeping track of monsters, the Ice Dragon, and trade caravans. Of course, since one of the main routes was shut down, it's become more of a break fort for patrols like mine."

"So you cut off all the emergency phones because no one was using it?" X asked. "We saw evidence of them."

He nodded. "Yes we did. Sorry about that, but we really didn't expect any more civilians to come along that route. The patrols all carry their own communications systems."

"I guess that makes sense."

There were several people milling around on the inside, but most prominent was a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties, who was standing just on the other side. A human, she was wearing a pink jacket and white pants. And she had light blond hair nearly as long as Zero's. She looked stern for a moment, then lost it to surprise. "This is interesting. Who do you have with you?"

Hirondelle nodded to her. "This would be Dr. Ciel, my patrol leader. Ciel, this would be X and Zero, come from Kykital to avoid the Dark Hunters."

Ciel gave him a look of disbelief, but he silently confirmed it was true. Then she said, "I was going to get after you for jumping off fort walls, again..."

Grinned mischievously, the special agent seemed proud of that.

"But since you went after someone, I'll let it slide this time. Are you boys okay?"

"We haven't had anything to eat in a couple of days," X said. "And we didn't sleep last night, trying to get here. I don't know what happened to Zero, though, if he was just too tired or what."

"Here, let's go in the gate office and give you both a quick checkup." Ciel opened the door with a keycard and let them in. "Jacobs, would you call up the General and let him know we have guests? And raise security level to A."

"Yes m'lady," the gate operator said.

"You have to raise security?" X asked, as Ciel began looking through a cabinet.

"Of course," Hirondelle replied. "Any time we have civilians in here, we need to go on high alert. Especially with two kids being chased by the Dark Hunters." He shuddered. "Can't imagine what those terrorists would want to do to you."

Jacobs glanced back. "We have the Rock Killers to worry about too?"

X nodded. "They want us for something... a dark magic ceremony."

Ciel came out with two mechanical devices. "We have five patrols here; surely one of them could boost us."

"Sure. I'll be back in a minute." He went off to call the leader of Fort Madeline.

"Hiron, would you scan Zero's body while I check his DNA and aura?"

"Yes, m'lady." He took one of the devices and began running it over Zero.

Ciel hooked Zero's outlet ports to a black box, then that to her laptop. "So X, would you tell me what you know about yourselves? Like how old you are or who your parents are."

"We don't know our parents," X replied. "I know he's three years old. His birthday was August first. My birthday's February seventh, and I'm three also."

"Okay." She entered that information. "So where are you two from?"

"Ikari Tower. At least, that's where we lived. I don't know about before then, like where we were born."

"Ikari Tower?" Hirondelle asked. "So you were kidnapped by Wily's forces."

"Yeah, I told you that. When we were both very little. We've known each other as long as we can remember."

Zero twitched, then awoke and tried to get up. "Ah, what are you doing?"

X put his hand on Zero's. "It's okay, Zero. These people are going to help us."

Hirondelle nodded. "Yes, so if you could lie back down so we can finish scanning you..."

"Oh, okay." He lay back down and yawned. "What happened to the big fiery dragon and the big icy dragon?"

"They're gone, for now," X said. "Hirondelle brought us into the fort, and Dr. Ciel's checking you over."

Ciel added some more items to her file on Zero. "Yes, you probably felt the scanner tapping your coding. It's a safe scanner, don't worry. And it's almost done checking you."

"Then once we scan X, we'll take you in for a hot breakfast. That sound good?"

"That sounds great," Zero replied.

Ciel's laptop beeped. "There we go. The Ice Dragon didn't curse you; that's good. There's no other known curses... no, there..."

"What is it?" X asked.

She spoke without thinking. "It's a mark of dark magic, a sign of a sacrificial victim." After that, she bit her lip, wondering if she shouldn't have said it.

Zero looked at X. His voice felt odd as he said, "You were right; they were going to feed us to the dragon."

X, who'd felt odd the whole time, answered, "But we got away. I almost don't believe it."

"You're safe now," Ciel said. "Okay X, time to check you over."

Zero got up so X could lie on the couch. He yawned again as Ciel was hooking X up. "I don't know if I want to go to sleep or eat."

X laughed. "We'd better eat first."

"Hey, do you guys know what to do about harpy stink? One of them got my arm."

"I noticed," Hirondelle said. "It was probably that bunch we had to scare off a month ago."

"If it just got your arm, it's probably only on your armor. You'll just have to put a little extra into the cleaning machine to get it off. If it actually got on you, then we'll have to give you a vinegar bath."

"At least vinegar doesn't stink as bad as harpy stink," Zero replied.

Ciel's computer beeped again. "All right, no Ice curses... we always have to check for that after an encounter with her. You have the sacrificial mark too, but those can be removed readily." She paused and looked hard at something. "Oh my... but not this."

"What is it?" X asked.

"You have a mental curse. An older one too, probably around six months."

"Can you do anything about that?" Zero asked, with a great deal of worry. "Because that was the worst day ever."

"Zero..." X was going to say something, but lost it.

"It's gotten imbedded into your aura, so it will be difficult to move. It's beyond my skills; I'm sorry, X."

X sat up when she unhooked him. "No, it's okay... it seems bad, but I know it's got a limited run. I just... I just have to get through it."

"You're very brave," Hirondelle said, "for taking it like that."

"Well, let's go get you two some breakfast and somewhere to sleep. That's most important."

They ate breakfast with Ciel, as Hirondelle had been sent on some errand. It was berries and oatmeal; simple, but great after coming in from the cold. While everyone was curious, Ciel kept them from being bothered. They were tired and not up to chatting yet. Plus, both of them felt nervous around all these strangers.

After breakfast, Hirondelle showed back up to take them to their room. It was nice for being in a military fort. There was an attached bathroom, two twin sized beds, a counter with many cabinets underneath, an IC unit, three chairs, and some other equipment they didn't recognize. Hirondelle showed them some of the things they were unfamiliar with. "This is a food replicator, although they put locks on the dorm units so you can't make just anything. But it will give you water, milk, and several juices to drink."

X slid open a door on the replicator and found some cups. "Okay, I see."

"And while I'm here, we'd best adjust your wash stations."

"Our what?"

He went over to what X had assumed was a closet; there were two large black boxes inside. They looked sort of like repair pods. "Wash stations, for your base armors. We need to make sure they'll grab hold of your smaller ones and secure well. I grabbed some pajamas for you," he pointed to a stack of items he'd placed on the counter. "They should be small enough, I hope."

"You take your armor off to sleep?" Zero asked. "We never took our armors off, except for baths."

"Well, you were in Ikari Tower and nobody probably bothered to teach you proper cleanliness and manners. You should give your armor a light cleaning every time you sleep, at least. It makes you feel better to have clean armor."

X and Zero looked at each other. This was a novel concept from a different world, but they would have to learn to live in it.

"You should put the cleaners on the highest settings, because of the harpies and your long travels. This switch will bring up the panel; it's self-explanatory after that. There, I think that should do." He stood back up again. "Do you two know how to operate the IC station?"

'Yes, we do," X said.

"He does, I don't really," Zero amended.

"Okay. The unit will give you a list of contacts when you first log in. I already set you to Patrol 81's network. That's us, so if you want to talk to me or Ciel, our numbers are on the list."

"All right, thanks."

"Do you have anything you want to ask before you rest?"

"No, not really," X said, glancing at Zero. He shook his head.

"All right. Don't hesitate to call us if you need anything. And don't worry; nobody can get to you in here." Then he left.

Zero looked around the room. "So we get to sleep in beds rather than pods and wear pajamas?"

X shrugged. "It's a very different world."

He checked out the pajamas left; Hirondelle had left four. He took an orange set and went into the bathroom to change. When he came back out, he was wearing orange flannel pajama shirt, pants, and socks. X had a similar set on, but in light green. "This is weird."

X touched the sleeve of his shirt. "It's nice, in a way. But it just feels odd to be without even a base armor on."

"I know. I feel sort of naked now."

X chuckled at that. "Well, let's figure out these wash station cleaner things."

Putting their armor inside caused clamps to reach out from the sides and grab hold. X pushed on his armor to make sure the grip was good. As soon as he pulled his arms out, the unit sealed. The control panel was indeed simple. There were light, medium, and heavy settings, and there was an extra button in case a reploid had sensitive skin. They set both stations to heavy; the closet door shut, to keep the noise low.

Zero sat on one of the beds while X got himself a glass of water. "This isn't so bad, I guess. It'll just take getting used to."

"I know." X took a sip and thought of something. "Hey Zero, when you were talking to Forte..."

"Hmm, what?"

"Did it feel like you were lying? I mean, I was talking to Hirondelle while you were sleeping, and I told him that we were kidnapped as infants. I also said that we were both three years old. Did those things feel like lying?"

Zero shook his head. "Nope. It felt like the truth when I said it."

"That's exactly what I felt like. I was making it up, but it didn't feel like that. And while I was talking to him and Ciel, my own memories seemed hazy."

"I know exactly how that is. It was the same the whole time I was talking to Forte, and then to them today. Like right now, when I said we didn't take our armors off except for baths."

"We used to shower and clean our armors at the same time."

"I know that, and I can think of that perfectly now. But then... is that like forgetting ourselves? Because you said that was a bad thing."

X considered it. "Possibly. But I think we're safe, so long as we can remember when we're by ourselves. But why... where do those false memories come from?"

False memories, like Forte had said. "Maybe they aren't false. Maybe we aren't lying, but it's not our truth. It could be we're speaking facts about these two children. Like, I don't know, maybe we can remember our soul memories when we're alone, but can only remember our body memories when someone else is near. I don't know if that makes sense."

"It does make sense, but I don't know if it's that simple."

Zero snorted. "I didn't mean for that to be a simple answer."

"Think about it. Like when we fell out of Shadow Palace and had that snowball fight. Really, that was an idiotic thing for us to do, but it made perfect sense to children. We know wilderness survival; we know things get very cold when the sun goes down. We saw the wilderness around us and we know better than to get wet in that type of environment. But we forgot all that and had a snowball fight."

"Well you started it."

"I know, I'm sorry. But see? We weren't thinking as adults then. We were thinking as children. Maybe these bodies affect us more than we realize."

"That could be. So what happened to the children who are supposed to be in these bodies? Are they in our bodies, in our world?"

"That would be nasty. Can you image children being suddenly thrust into our bodies? They wouldn't be ready. If that's so, I hope Alia and Signas found them quickly. They could be trying to find a way to swap us back; it's been nearly two months, I think."

"But we can't rely on them to find us. We can't communicate and until we can, we're stuck."

"That's true. Well, I'm too tired to think about this much more. I'm going to sleep."

"Good idea." Zero flopped down on his bed. "You know, I never realized until now just how good having a safe warm place was. This is so much better than where we were yesterday."

"No kidding."


	6. Viewpoints

August 20, XX54  
Fort Madeline

Ciel examined the scans from the two children, but her mind kept drifting. Even if it was still morning, this had been a crazy day. The Ice Dragon attacked at dawn, sending everyone into a rush to defend the fort. Then a second dragon appeared, similar to the Ice Dragon in that no one could see it. After the Ice Dragon had flown off and her rival got shot down, Ciel had to locate her eleven personnel to go investigate the evidence. Squad 81 was a research unit, and they knew it was best to get to a location as soon as possible for the best data.

And then Hirondelle came in with two reploid children with eerily familiar names, X and Zero. Ciel thought about them. Master X, bless his soul, had sacrificed himself to save many. Zero had changed his name to Neko and was currently MIA from the last Kykital caravan. These two children were cold, weak, and starving from making a near impossible trip, at least for their ages. But the feat itself made the children even more like her old friends.

There was always the possibility that she was dealing with mirrors. Ciel was an alien to this world; so were nearly every member of her squad and dozens of other people around this world. Their home world had been much like this one, but had been destroyed in a matter of seconds. That had been the incident to inspire Master X's last sacrifice. He somehow transported many Resistance members and innocent civilians to this world. The children X and Zero could be mirror souls to Master X and Zero, who was now Neko.

But for a mirror soul, there was something odd between Neko and young Zero. Young X and Master X were nearly identical, and probably would be if it weren't for the lack of magic in Ciel's old world. Neko and Zero weren't alike. They were close, enough that any Resistance member could identify the child with their hero. But there were just enough differences (slightly different structures, altered parts) that could mean they were directly related.

That raised disturbing questions about her old friend. Could he have had an affair and a child without telling anyone? Neko was quiet and introverted, but Ciel had always assumed that they were close enough friends that Neko could tell her anything. She knew some things about him that he didn't want anyone else knowing. But still, the possibility was real, and so was this child.

One memory in particular kept surfacing. She remembered it for something he had said. She had interpreted it one way, but was it possible he meant another way? And the timing was just right. If Zero was three years old, then maybe it had been a bad time for Neko...

* * *

December 12, XX51  
Kykital

Ciel had Chicken ala King, and Neko was eating a black bean soup. "Sorry about the schedule mix-up, but like I told you, the university's been in a buzz over this project."

Neko, who hadn't talked much, shrugged. "It's fine. It's good to see you again."

"Is something wrong with you? You're acting that way."

He went blank on visible emotions; he was quite practiced in doing this. "No, nothing I can't... I have some personal responsibilities to attend to, that's all."

"If anything's wrong, you can tell me. I'd hate to think we've drifted apart."

Neko smiled briefly. "It's not that, Ciel." He went quiet, but before she could start another topic, he asked, "Have you seen Alouette recently? Something's come up and I think she can help."

It took her a moment to recall this information, with such an abrupt change in subject. "She's in Lunesk. One of the largest elf communities is there and she wanted to study with them. I talk to her quite a bit; seems she's become well respected there."

"Oh good," he said softly.

"What is the matter? Is it serious?"

Neko put his hand in the air, as if he had something in mind. But he didn't say it. Instead, he put his hand down and said, "We've got to do something about this Ice Dragon. We've already lost one world. I'd hate to fail this one."

Ciel looked closely at Neko, wondering how those dissimilar thoughts all connected. Something was obviously weighing his heart down. But it was gone as suddenly as it had come, and Neko refused to speak any more of his troubles that day.

* * *

August 20, XX54  
Fort Madeline

Ciel thought of that strange conversation. She'd never learned what had caused that sudden outburst, but had joined the Snow Patrol because of it. She had assumed that some incident had biased him against the Ice Dragon. But could it be that what incited that outburst had played Zero into her hands now? Neko couldn't speak for himself...

Ciel rubbed her forehead and glanced around. Criore wasn't in the room; she was socializing with other cyber elves. In this world, elves were very social creatures, and doing data analysis bored them. She'd have to wait to talk about this.

Well, she wasn't doing Zero any good with her mind so distracted. She switched over to X's scan, hoping to clear her mind. Otherwise, she'd have to locate someone else to check them over.

X was carrying a rather severe mental curse. Any sort of curse was a puzzle to solve and mental curses were worst of all. Victims often would give false symptoms, forced to by the curse. Victims sometimes couldn't name their curse or symptoms, for those very symptoms caused them to distrust or be fearful of others. X might say it was temporary, but chances were it was permanent.

And even if the curse was properly diagnosed, treatment was often difficult or terrible. Most curses had the ability to evolve into others if provoked right. Even if it didn't evolve, curse treatments could often be worse than the curse itself. Ciel really wasn't qualified to work on a mental curse alone.

She was qualified to look over his physical signs. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she noticed a fine line in one of X's skeletal structures, on his right arm. A scar from an old injury. The healing looked clean. Children got injured all the time. This simply meant that at one time, he had cracked his upper arm. Ciel made note of it for his medical records.

But there was a second scar on his lower arm. The look of it suggested this break had been earlier than the last, perhaps by something heavy falling on the arm. Having two breaks on one arm in a three-year-old was unusual. And there were three scars on his right wrist. The way they were formed and arranged suggested that he had been in a defensive position and someone had smashed his wrist.

Ciel spent the next hour recording X's bone scars. The whole of them, plus his small size for his age, suggested he had been abused and neglected practically from the day he'd been born. But the majority of his scars looked well healed, as if someone who knew how to properly care for broken bones had attended to him. It was an odd conjunction.

Concerned, she brought up Zero's physical scan and looked for bone scars. She found them; not nearly as many as X, but also clean and well healed. But he had something X did not have. Along his neck, his frame was stressed to the point of weakness. That suggested he had either been shaken violently or choked repeatedly.

Feeling disturbed, Ciel got up to get someone else to check over her findings. It was one thing to speak of Ikari Tower as a place of evil, but a whole different thing to see what was actually going on inside. Especially when one of the children might be connected to her.

* * *

August 21, XX54  
Monsteropolis

Outside, it was too cold. Sigma pulled his coat closer, but the wind seemed to find any space to chill him from. He tried keeping against the wall of this 'room', but the open wall let the wind slip in. Although he'd rather be indoors, his father insisted. They were waiting on his mother.

Sigma huffed and watched his breath turn to mist. It was crazy. Back at home, he had temperature regulators so he'd be comfortable in any environment. And he breathed differently, so that his breath would not mist up. It had been two months and any novelty had worn off.

His mother. Sigma had talked to Zeta Cain over the phone before, just to keep up the act while he figured things out. That had been a weekly bother. But now he'd have yet another human around every day to bother him. He wanted to find Ikari Domino again and make him send him back home.

Roger playfully pushed him on the bench. "Hey, you don't have to hide your excitement. I know you miss mom. It's been three months."

"I'm cold," Sigma replied.

"Of course you are. Normally when mom or dad comes home from a long time away, you're running all over the gatehouse."

"That's not dignified."

Roger smirked. "Oh, so you've decided to be snobby now? Just don't forget; you're only a kid."

Sigma glared at him, then got off the bench and went elsewhere. But where elsewhere? The wind was worse outside the gatehouse. The gate itself looked like it belonged on a bank vault, not on the entrance to a city. There were some doors into the wall, but they were all locked securely. And there were humans milling about everywhere. There were some reploids, not many, and out of all the people here, there were only two other reploid children. There was a boy with orange armor with lots of triangles and a single dark blue sphere in his chest. And there was a girl with lavender armor, pastel pink moth wings, and long feathery feelers. Sigma went over to them, if only to be with his own kind.

The boy noticed him first. "Hey look, it's the whiney brat."

Sigma glared at him. "I am not a whiney brat."

"You are too."

"Am not."

"And you're a chicken." He clucked and laughed.

"What makes you think you can say that?" Sigma challenged.

The boy got right in front of him. "Because I'm right." He stuck his tongue out.

Sigma punched him in the chin. The boy stumbled back, looking more surprised than anything. Grinning, the girl taunted, "You got beat up by Sigma."

He turned red. "I did not!" He ran off, with his sister (presumably) chasing after him. Nobody paid attention to them. The guards were too busy to notice a couple of kids fighting.

Why would he call him that? Sigma was not a whiner, and definitely wasn't chicken. But considering the child he met the day he got transferred here, the one who was scared speechless, it made sense. He'd just have to work hard to overcome that image.

The gate opened up, and everyone gathered to greet a relative or friend back home. Sigma turned to look at a bulletin board. He could care less. Right?

He did feel something. Curiosity? Expectation? He tried to ignore it, but it was hard. Reluctantly, he turned to look at the returning caravan. He scanned the human women for one he'd recognize like he had David and Roger the first day. He soon spotted her.

His mother was a reploid. Zeta Cain did have a hominoid figure, but she was a reploid. She had lavish red curls, a voluptuous body, and sleek black armor with oversized shoulder pads, like Sigma had. She even had a cream colored cape with a rose in the center of it. A rose was also tattooed on her cheek. So this was his mother?

It was. She greeted David with a warm hug and a long kiss. She gave Roger a more motherly hug and kiss. So she was their mother.

Sigma felt furious. He hated mixed couples. It was a pernicious fetish and he had done everything he could to stamp it out. Anything from spreading rumors to killing such couples, he had done them trying to set his race right. But those perverts still kept at it, and Domino had stuck him with the worst family possible.

He would have liked to call Zeta a betrayer of her race, among other things too nasty to print. But given where he was, what he was, and the vast lack of information he had, he had to run up to her and call her, "Mom!"

* * *

August 22  
Balna Forest

"The master's been kind to you," Ballade said. "You ought to join our father's forces again."

Forte looked over his greenhouses, overgrown in the past three weeks. "I said I would consider it. I've grown accustomed to my quiet life."

"The next strike is coming together. You'll want to be with us by that time, or else suffer the consequences."

"I cooperated, so let me be. I have my research to get back to, and a lot of work needs to be done around here."

Ballade looked over the greenhouses too. "I know. I'm only trying to help you. I haven't forgotten what you've done for me."

That. He turned back to his brother. "I appreciate that."

His silver eye glittered strangely, as Ballade began to look uneasy. "Forte, if you do find an alternate way to end the winter... I'll be grateful, at least."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'll tell you if you come back. Farewell, brother." Then he vanished.

What was that about? But that mystery wasn't important now. Forte checked his greenhouses quickly before entering the house. The wolfoids should have seen the boys back to the cabin, since he'd programmed most of them to return home and wait should he be captured. But everything seemed undisturbed. No one had been here for weeks, not even a wolfoid.

Well, he'd tried. Forte sat on a cot and thought about it all afternoon. He'd tried to do the right thing, again, but things beyond his control ruined his deed. He felt an unnerving sense of deja vu and it made him feel sick inside.

Maybe they were back at Ikari Tower. That was his best hope for them at the moment, although the Tower was a horrible place for any innocent child to be. Ikari Domino had interviewed Forte himself and had been quite irritated at Forte's supposed ignorance. No matter what they did, he denied knowing about X and Zero and repeated his story of putting himself in exile. Domino had already known this story, but still suspected him of lying. At least they didn't bring Dr. Wily in.

Wily's forces were in an odd situation now, Forte considered. Ikari Domino was supposed to only be Albert Wily's attendant, the builder of the tower that had his name, and potentially his son. But when his brothers referred to 'the master', it was hard to tell if they were speaking of Albert or Ikari. Ikari was making appearances in Albert's name and sending out his messages to the world. And had they brought Forte in front of his father, well, he couldn't lie to his father. That was simply unthinkable; Albert had gone to great lengths to prove that.

But what did Wily and Domino want with the boys? X was easy to understand, but Zero made things more complicated. And what had become of the child he was looking for?

Evening fell and the nightly howls started. There was a storm approaching that would hit within two hours. There was a full moon in three nights. The deer had shifted feeding patterns again, changing other animals' survival habits. A hot spring thought to have dried up was flowing again. The usual wilderness news. Forte only half-listened until he realized these were all coming from wolves. Where was his pack?

Worried, Forte left the house. He walked through the woods to a spot with a large flat rock. It marked a good sound point. He adjusted his vocal cords, then joined the howls. " _I have escaped my enemies_ ," he told the wolves.

There were gleeful return howls, congratulating him on escape. A wolf on the edge of his hearing began relating the news to those far away. For years, the wolves of flesh and blood had respected Forte greatly. They called him Friend in the Wilderness.

Once the initial excitement settled down, he called out, " _I have not seen my pack. Is there word of them?"_

" _They have not been seen for three-quarters a moon phase_ ," he was told.

" _There was word yesterday_ ," another said. " _They have seen the pups to safety_."

Forte felt relieved. " _The pups have gotten to safety?"_

" _Yes. The full message was, they traveled to left of the rising sun, for three quarters phase, with reploid pups and a golem monster. The golem monster passed away heroically, but the Metal Pack is fine and the pups were rescued by their own kind. They are all now safe_."

Interpreting those words, it seemed they traveled northeast about three weeks. Going a month northeast of Kykital would put one right in Monsteropolis, so they must be at a Snow Patrol fort. The White Demon was dead; it didn't matter so much. " _Send word to my pack that I will join them as soon as I can. They should alert me if the pups are moved elsewhere_."

" _Sending word_."

" _Thank you."_

Forte left the rock and went back home. With the nearest city frozen, it would be best to abandon this place. He'd have to strip everything useful out. Travel alone was dangerous, so perhaps he should track down another Core Demon for protection. This would be a lot of trouble, but the master, whoever that was, wanted X and Zero for something. Wily would never give up on something once he set his eyes on it. Domino was too deceptive and devious to trust. If those children were to be safe, and his own mind put at ease, then he had to watch over them. There was no question about it.

* * *

August 22  
Fort Madeline

X was in the fort library, researching magic. Zero read for a bit, but lost interest quickly. Since X and everyone else in the library were busy, he decided to go for a walk. He couldn't go everywhere in the fort, but he could go several interesting places.

But everyone outside the library was busy too. Zero went back to his room and put on the cloak and the boot add-ons to go outside for a bit. There wasn't much out there. Any buildings other than the main were locked off. But there was the wall, and a staircase to access it. Zero climbed up. The walkway had a half-wall that was over his head, but Zero got on top of that. He sat on the wall and looked out at the snow and clouds.

"Careful up there, Zero," Hirondelle said, as he came by on patrol.

He turned. There was a human patrolman with him. "Hi Hirondelle. I'm being careful."

"Good. I don't want to get in trouble again for jumping off. Although," he winked, "it is a lot of fun."

Zero chuckled. "I don't want back out there. There's so much snow."

"Yeah, we're probably due to have a vortex soon."

"Why's that?" Zero felt puzzled with himself, for he usually wasn't this chatty. But he was curious as to why the backwards hurricane would exist.

"It's because it's so cold now. The normal water cycle requires water to be heated up to go into the air and become rain clouds. But since the world froze over, these vortexes have appeared. They pull water straight from the ground up to the sky, so it keeps on snowing."

Zero thought over that. "I think I get it."

"Don't worry, kid. We'll notice a vortex well before it comes. Good day." He walked on, posted further down the wall. The human was posted right near Zero.

Zero went back to watching the clouds. If there was nothing else to do, he could spend hours just watching clouds. Especially storm clouds that grew and changed, even if one blinked. But the human kept giving him cold looks. After several minutes of this, Zero looked back at him. "What?"

"You kids don't fool me. I don't trust anyone from Ikari Tower."

"We didn't want to be there."

"You're lying; you're both spies. Those in Ikari Tower despise the world and would like to see it destroyed on their terms."

Zero scowled at the landscape. He'd been hated before, but that had a good reason. On the other hand, this just seemed like silly superstition. "We're just kids. And I'd like to see you spend twenty days in the snow with only four days worth of food."

"Except you didn't spend that long out there. They dropped you off right here for your mission."

"That's a lie."

"My friends and I will see that dangerous reploids like you are taken care of."

Zero felt mad at being misjudged so badly. But normally he took such anger out on inanimate objects. It was best to keep a stoic face in front of others. But the man pointed at Zero's face, to emphasize his point. Zero felt immediately threatened and reacted without thinking. He bit the man's hand, very hard.

"*** *****!" he shouted, stupidly jerking his hand away. Zero tasted blood on his teeth. That was disgusting. He spit it out to the side.

Hirondelle came back over. "Whoa, take it easy around the kid."

"That little Ikari demon bit me," he said, looking at the dark red semi-circle on his hand. "Those kids are trouble, mark my words."

"He threatened me," Zero said, meaning to sound mad. But he wound up sounding hurt.

"You're taking things out of context again," Hirondelle told his human peer. Then he told Zero, "Why don't you go back inside for now?"

"Fine," he replied, dropping back down to the walkway. He wasn't about to stay around some unpleasant human anyways.

When he got back to the library, X noticed his temper. "What happened?"

"Not everyone here likes us. This guy called us spies and demons, so I bit him."

"You bit someone?"

"He just made me so mad. I wasn't thinking."

"But still, biting?"

"Well look at me," Zero said, holding out his hands. "It not like I could have punched him or anything. My strength is worth nothing now. And he was threatening me."

"Try not to bite anyone else. It could be bad."

"I know, I'll try." He sighed. "I hate being a little kid."

X tried to think of something to say. "Well, um..."

Zero glanced around, with an odd idea. "Hey... this is going to sound so stupid."

"What?"

"Could you... read me a story?"

X looked puzzled. "Read you a story?"

"I can read. I just... I don't know. Somehow I think I'll feel better when you read me something."

"I guess, if you want to." X shut his book and got out of the chair. "Not this one; too technical. But maybe they have something in fiction that's easier to read."

Zero followed. "Maybe they have some interesting mysteries or neat horror stories."

X put his book in a return bin. "But you always call me a geek for reading so much."

"I read sometimes."

"Yeah, like maybe one book a year."

"Still... I think it's one of those child memories, of you reading to me."

"Now that you mention it, I recall the same thing. Especially when one of us was scared. Is that why you want me to read to you?"

"I'm not scared. I'm just mad."

"I don't blame you, given the accusation. Oh, here we go." X pulled a book off the shelf.

"That's a large book."

He opened the cover to the table of contents. "It's a collection of short stories and poems. Huh, I remember this being in our world too. Well, come on. I saw some couches over there."

Zero followed him over, still feeling stupid for his request. That is, until X started reading. He soon forgot about being called a spy and got absorbed in the stories. It felt like something had returned to normal.

Normal? Zero wasn't sure any of this was normal. They were two kids, without family, in a military base reading moral stories. This world was cursed in snow, and everyone they had met was either determined to punish them, or determined to save them. None of that could be normal.

But, maybe this storytelling was closer to normal for the child whose body he inhabited. Maybe X was right in that these child bodies influenced them greatly. It was a good influence now. They wound up reading stories all afternoon and it came out to be a good day.


	7. A Meeting to Change Lives

August 23, XX54  
Fort Madeline

A lone sled traveled across the snow fields. It was one of the fastest models available, with twin Luxor jets, but it was only available to Snow Patrol members. Blues was operating the vehicle. He glanced back at his brother. "I see Fort Madeline ahead. It'll be about fifteen minutes."

Rock didn't respond. He was lying on the back bench shuffling through his tarot cards. Although Blues didn't like it, this was Rock's usual state of being now, unresponsive and apathetic.

Up until thirty years ago, the two of them had been battling Wily's forces. They'd been at it for several decades until finally they got him cornered. But Rock had been alone at that final duel; Blues had been trying to keep any backup from arriving. Then for nearly seven months, no one heard from either Dr. Wily or Rock. Blues had known something had gone terribly wrong, but couldn't know what.

Then Rock came back, cursed with Soul Winter. It was a horrific curse that was listed in all the books as difficult to break. Soul Winter cut off good and strong emotions, generally leaving the victim quietly depressed, apathetic at best. Suicide killed nearly every victim within the first year. So far, Rock was doing well. He had survived this long and his bouts of depression so far weren't severe. Blues had to find a cure before Soul Winter wore Rock out.

After several minutes of silence, he teased, "Getting any messages from beyond?"

"I keep pulling the same set," Rock replied. "Always the same cards."

"Really? What's the set mean?"

"One of us will soon meet with a long-lost member of our family. This reunion will change our family structure ever after."

"Huh." Blues thought about that. "Maybe it's a psychic hint from Roll that we ought to visit home."

There was a slight smile on Rock's face, but as usual it vanished quickly. "She would. But still... the cards suggest that this is a person we love who hasn't been seen in a long time. And it will be a very drastic change."

Ska decided to sit back with Rock and examine his cards. " _No sign of if it's a good change or bad change. Just an unknown change. Blues, do you want me to look after Rock?"_

He nodded. "Yes please," he said softly, knowing his elf would hear. This was a sign to worry at. Then he spoke louder, "You ought to come up here; we'll be at the gates soon and they aren't expecting us."

"All right." Rock put his cards back in the deck box and came up to the driver's bench. He didn't seem depressed right now. Aside from weariness, it was hard to read anything on that face. Ska's voice twinkled in singing as he tried to help.

Their sled radio automatically adjusted to the frequency in use. "This is Fort Madeline. Identify your patrol and personnel."

"This is Patrol 1, Rock and Blues Light. We're here to request a short stay."

There was a pause as they confirmed this. "Patrol 1, this is a pleasant surprise. What are you in the area for?"

"We've returned from some long reconnaissance in unwatched areas. May we come in? We've been out for many months."

"Certainly, we'll get the gates for you."

The gate opened slowly. Ska fluttered his wings, happy. " _Good, back in a warm place_."

Blues parked their sled to be taken down for storage. He took a mobile computer with him; Rock took his tarot deck. After things were arranged, they could get the other things. Blues tapped at the gatehouse window. "So with Lord Signas out, who's running Fort Madeline?"

"General Balbanes, so far. We don't have anyone permanent ready."

"Hmm, Balbanes from the traders guild. Not who we need, but he can get things along to General Oregon or someone else."

"Actually, if it's on the Ice Dragon or Wily's forces, Dr. Ciel is here."

"Really, Dr. Ciel? Yeah, we should talk to her. What's she up to?"

"Her patrol is headed out to study Kykital tomorrow, but you should be able to speak with her today. Here, let me get you the conference room she's currently using... and here's an empty suite for you."

"All right, thank you much." He took the numbers and walked with Rock down the hall. "This'll be great; we can finally meet this lady in person."

"Yeah." Rock sighed and looked around the busy fort. "We won't ever get a break, will we?"

"Probably not. The world needs us."

"Still."

* * *

 

The cafeteria was noisy by the time X and Zero reached it. "I hear they've got something special tonight because Ciel's patrol is leaving tomorrow."

"It smells good, whatever it is. So are we going with them?"

"No, they're going out to Kykital for several months. We have to wait until a trade caravan comes through. But the Ice Dragon has been here repeatedly this month, so most caravans have been routed around Madeline."

"So it could be a while."

X got on his tip-toes, trying to look over the counter. "I wonder what is on the menu. I just heard it was something special."

Zero glanced around the room and spotted someone odd. "Hey, X."

"What?"

He pointed. "Look over there, with Miss Ciel."

X looked over at the full table. It was mostly Patrol 81, but there were two newcomers X had not seen around the fort yet. And one of them looked almost exactly like he did as an adult. "Weird. I wonder who they are."

"I know. There were quite a few who tried to imitate me,"

"Yeah, in various degrees of weaker than you."

Zero grinned. "But despite your surface simplicity, nobody's tried to imitate you that exactly."

"I'm more complicated than I seem. But you're right. Too bad their table is full."

Tonight the cafeteria was serving chicken stir-fry with fresh vegetables. It had to be made in small batches every few minutes, hence the line moving slower than usual. But Patrol 81 had requested it, so they would get it. It would be their last regular hot meal for a long time, perhaps ever if unspoken worries came true.

X and Zero located some adjustable chairs and sat by themselves at an empty table. They talked, as usual, of comparing their old world to this one. But X's attention kept drifting to a few tables away, to the man who looked like him.

"What are you thinking about?" Zero asked. "It's always something when you've got that look."

"I'm not sure. Did it ever make you feel odd to meet one of your copycats?"

"Odd? Not really. Some of them annoyed me, though."

"I think all of them annoyed you."

"That could be."

"But when I think of that guy, I feel like I should know him. Not in being me, but..."

"Like when we recognized the Dark Hunters?"

"Yeah, like that. Except I can't recall his identity, only that we're connected somehow."

"Hmm. Maybe we should go talk to him. Maybe he does know you."

"I hope so. Okay, we'll find some... they're gone."

Zero looked over and noticed that some of Patrol 81 were still there, but most, including Ciel and the two newcomers, were gone. "Don't worry. This fort isn't that big. We'll run across them sooner or later. I just hope they're not going to leave with Ciel's group."

"I know."

They got up anyways to put their dishes up and see what was being offered as dessert. Most of it was too fancy for their child tastes, so they got some ice cream from a machine. Ciel found them as Zero was trying not to get ice cream on his hand. One of the newcomers was with her, but not the one who looked like X. "Oh good, I hoped to run into you boys tonight. Here, I need to give you some growth medications."

X took the bottle and box. "Growth medications?"

"Yes; you both are small for your age, so we're going to try catching you up. The instructions and prescription are in the box. Don't lose track of those papers, because this is heavy therapy and you'll need it to explain why you're on it."

"Okay Ciel. I'll be careful."

Zero looked at X, then began filling an ice cream dish for him.

"What are you doing?" X asked them.

"We're working on the mission preparations. Boys, this is Blues Light, one of the Snow Patrol's founders. Blues, this is X and Zero, the two boys who came from Kykital."

Blues shook hands with X. "It's good to meet two brave young men like yourselves."

X blushed. "We're not that brave."

"Blues is going to take you to Monsteropolis when he and his brother leave. You can trust them."

"Good," Zero said.

"We're going to stay together, right?" X reminded her.

"Of course."

Blues nodded. "I might be able to convince my sister to adopt you. She's a wonderful lady who takes in kids all the time. I don't think she has any now, but I haven't spoken to her in a while."

"That's good. So long as we're together, anything's fine."

He smirked. "Oh, we'll make it better than fine. If Roll doesn't take you in for whatever reason, I'll make certain you get in a good home. I know what it's like to spend days in the snowfield, and I respect anyone who can manage it."

"So how are you two today?" Ciel asked. "Sorry if I've been busy."

"We understand, you have a lot to do. We're okay."

"Some of the guys let us in the gym," Zero said. "There were weights in there that were heavier than me."

Blues chuckled. "It wouldn't be hard to do that."

Zero made a face. "I won't always be little. And I was able to pick up a hundred pound weight."

"You mean you put it on its side," X teased.

"Well they didn't think I could even do that. And I didn't drop it on my foot."

"It made a big noise when it did fall over."

"I'd image," Ciel said. "I'll be sure to check on you two again before I leave. I hope you do well."

"Thanks, Miss Ciel," Zero said.

X tapped Blues' hand. "Oh, but there was some other guy with you... who was he?"

"I think you mean my brother Rock. He went outside for some fresh air. Of course, he's not fond of crowded places either."

"Okay." After they left for their meeting, X turned to Zero. "Let's go find Rock."

"Now? But we have ice cream, and I don't want to be outside with it. Although, it would probably set up better out there."

"That's true. Okay, we'll look in a bit."

"So there's more to your family here," Zero said as they got back to their table. "Do you recognize any of them?"

"Kinda. Rock was the robot hero of the twenty-first century. Blues you hear of less often, but he helped. And Roll even, although she stayed at home and helped Dr. Light with housekeeping. But they all disappeared, either in the last part of the Wily Wars, or just after. It seems history took a different turn here."

"There's also magic here. Maybe it's just following closely."

"Could be. I wonder if I'm still in the Light family, or if I'm just a fluke."

"We'll go find that Rock guy and talk to him. Then you'll know."

* * *

 

Rock sat on a bench and drew cards again. And again, the message was the same. A long lost member of your family will be with you soon. This meeting will change your family ever after. Why was he only getting this message today?

Ska jingled from where he was perched on Rock's hair, sending a slight orange glow on his forehead. Rock had wanted to be alone, but Blues was concerned and so the elf was with him. Actually, he didn't mind Ska so much. Most elves were a little silly (or very silly), but this one was sensible. Except that rats terrified him. Still, Rock wished he could understand the bell-like Elf language.

He shuffled the cards again. Up until a year ago, Rock had ignored all forms of soothsaying. He studied spells he knew were useful. Battle spells, survival skills, some translation, and item manipulation, that was what he studied. Rock had studied right into the Black Ring as a wizard without realizing it. It was good in one way, as his elemental and attack powers were vastly boosted. But it was bad in that he could only learn low level healing spells. At least he hadn't studied into the warlock class, which reduced healing capacity to potions and compounds. But observing vague signs for possible truths and signs of the future? It was not useful, therefore, Rock didn't study it.

But a year ago, he had run into a psychic devotee, an astrologer to be exact. She insisted that he had a natural knack for soothsaying. He argued that it was only his innate magic skills she was reading. But in the end, he took the offered tarot deck and agreed to look into it. So far, he'd only done it when bored, when traveling across the snowfield. But this message; he wished he'd kept her contact number, so he could ask her thoughts.

A long lost family member... his immediate family was small, just himself, his brother, and his sister. Their father had passed away almost thirty years ago. Thomas Light's human children had drifted away, so there was a chance it was one of them. But Rock wasn't sure if any of them was that important. Could this be a ghostly encounter? Maybe Thomas had figured out Rock's curse in death and was coming to pass the secret along. That would change things. Or maybe one of the three could pass away and join their father. When a family is made up of only three members, losing one would be drastic. Maybe Blues had a right to be worried about him.

Ska flew off for a second, then came by his cards and said something. Rock did recognize the particular tone of this sound. It meant someone was coming, in particular someone Ska did not recognize. They were in a fort with five other patrols; then again, why would Ska mention strangers unless the strangers were looking for them? Rock looked around and noticed the two boys that Ciel had spoken about over dinner. She'd talked them into taking them home to Monsteropolis.

But as he looked at them, he recalled that there was another long lost family member that had completely slipped his mind. Some time ago, Rock had lost a son to treachery and deceit. He'd assumed that the child was murdered in the name of revenge, but he did know his child's face. One of those boys was his son. The other was unfamiliar.

They came over as soon as they spotted him. So they were looking for him. Could it be his son? Yes, he saw himself with traces of the boy's mother in his face. There was also something extra to his eyes that made Rock think of the astrologer's eyes. He wondered what until the boy said, "Are you my father?"

So one way or another, he knew. "We can't say for certain without testing, but I would say you are almost definitely my son."

His son hugged him, so Rock picked him up and hugged him back. This was a strange encounter, but a good one. He hoped this what the cards had spoken of.

The boy with long blond hair stood back awkwardly, not sure what to do. "Um, hi there."

"Oh, sorry." His son pulled away, but stayed in his lap. "This is my best friend Zero. And, um, my name is X."

"I see, X. I'm Rock Light. Where have you been all this time? I thought you'd been murdered."

"Murdered? Why?"

An insane petty argument… "I have some enemies that will do anything to get to me."

"I see. We've been in Ikari Tower, but we got away recently."

"It was a very hard escape," Zero added, "but we had to do it."

Rock thought about it. "It would. Ikari Tower... I have some bad memories of that place."

X seemed to be observing him. "Where have you been? I always wished you were there."

"I'm sorry, I had no idea you could be alive. I've been rather busy with the Ice Dragon and keeping track of the last of Wily's forces..."

"They're based in Ikari Tower," Zero said. "But they keep the entrance and exit locked at all times."

"I'm aware of that. I recently found the Tower again, but we weren't able to enter. But I had no idea you would be inside."

"I guess we can tell you what we know," X said, with some nervousness. "But it might not be much. But if it would help you catch guys like the Dark Hunters..."

"Of course," Zero said, frowning. "They were so mean to us."

Rock nodded. "They would be. But don't worry; I'll protect you now. Both of you, I promise. I've defeated all the Hunters before and they know better than to mess with me."

"You'll take us both in?"

"Of course, if you want."

X smiled. "That'd be great."

Zero nodded. "Well I suppose you can watch out for me. I'm going to beat all those nasty Hunters when I grow up, but I'll be good for now."

X laughed. "I'm sure you will."

"Then we'll have to see about training you well. But you're both still young and don't need to be worrying about that now. Come on; we should find my brother and introduce you."

"We already met Blues," X said.

Zero nodded. "He went with Dr. Ciel to talk about research."

"But I don't think he realized we were related."

"Then we must introduce you properly."

* * *

 

Zero was by himself for a while, so he took a shower. He carefully wrapped his damp hair in one large towel and grabbed another towel on his way out. Then he read from a children's storybook X had found in the fort library. Most books bored him, but this one was good.

The door opened and X came in. Rock patted his head. "We'll talk more tomorrow, but it looks like you need to sleep."

X yawned. "Yeah. Good night dad."

"Good night X. Good night Zero."

He nodded. "Good night Rock."

Rock left for his own room. X picked up his pajamas. "I guess I should shower too."

"Go right ahead."

X went in and took a quick shower. Zero unwrapped his hair. It wasn't dry yet, but the towel was very damp. He tossed that one in the laundry shoot and finished drying with the other. Back at home, his meticulousness about caring for his hair got him teased by the other guys. Except X, of course, save for teasing fights where both were joking. But no matter how much work it took, the other guys had to admit his fussy personal grooming got him just about any girl he wanted. That wasn't the only reason why he kept his hair so long, but that was the only reason he'd ever give another guy. Except X. They knew all of each other's secrets.

X came out of the bathroom, looking quite happy. He sat on his bed and seemed to bounce a little. "I hope you didn't mind being alone."

Now that his hair was dry, Zero began brushing it. "That's fine. So did they get that testing done?"

"Yup, and Ciel managed to prove that Rock is my father."

"How does that work? Do you know?"

X shrugged. "I don't know, but it is possible in this world."

"Huh. Cause I know they started calling electronic programming maps DNA in our world recently, but I didn't think they were being serious. And I don't know what was wrong with EPM."

"I agree, EPM is more accurate. Anyhow, Ciel took specific parts of our DNA; she wouldn't tell me what exactly. It seems these specific program maps would be passed from the father reliably, especially in father to son. And since our maps matched up exactly, that was proof enough that Rock is my father. There is a slight degree of test inaccuracy, but I think this one is reliable. I just know that it's true."

"Like you just knew Forte's real name? It was the truth, so you said it."

"Like that. Ciel called me psychically sensitive the other day, and Forte said I have a third eye. This world has magic and I seem to be special."

"Well, if it helps us solve this dragon problem and get back home sooner, I'm all for it. Even if we got our adult bodies back, they haven't solved it in twenty-five years. This is going to be a tough battle."

"I know." X paused, then bounced on his bed again. "Oh, and guess what? Rock is going to shift from Snow Patrol to City Guardian, so he can live in Monsteropolis with us."

"Really? That's good. He must know a lot about the Ice Dragon, so he could help."

"He could. But this is an unusual move for him. It's like you leaving the Maverick Hunters for whatever reason. Rock was one of the founding members and has been on constant patrol ever since. For him to just give it all up for a few years, even Blues was surprised."

Zero paused in his brushing. "Huh. I couldn't see myself giving up being a Hunter any time soon. Although, if such a thing happened, I might give it some serious thought."

"I know you would. You take life and honor too seriously."

Zero laughed softly. "And you'd pester me until I did."

"I wouldn't be that bad."

"I guess you're right. If it could happen, I probably would put things on hold. We can trust Rock then, since he has that sort of honor."

X scratched his chin. "Yeah, although..."

"What?"

"Well, you know how I have that mental curse Ciel can't identify? I've been getting the feeling that he's living under a mental curse too."

"Are curses really that bad?"

"I read up on curses and they are that bad. A mental curse inflicts a form of psychosis on the victim that can't be solved until the curse is broken. There's a curse called Wayward Walk that causes the victim to become obsessive-compulsive in a specific pattern. The victim must tap a doorknob three times before turning it, will feel pressured to organize anything, and must start walking backwards at a specified sound."

"Weird. So what do you two have?"

"I don't know. I hope it's nothing too bad. Oh, and we'd better start those growth medications."

X got up and pulled out the bottle and box. He handed Zero a red tablet and a gray pill. "I guess... hey, this gray one is heavy."

"That's the material supplement, and we have to take it twice a day now." He swallowed both of his. "The red one is supposed to encourage a growth spurt."

Zero looked at his pills a moment longer, then took them. "I guess if we start out as small children, we'd need help in growing."

X lay down on his bed. "Yeah, since we're not made of something simple, like humans are made of carbon bases."

Zero continued brushing his hair out. As he finished up, a question had repeatedly come into his mind. "Hey X, do you think I have a father here?"

There was no answer. X was fast asleep. He must have been very tired, Zero thought. Zero was tired himself. Besides, even his third eye might not have an answer to that question.

Zero looked out the window, at a star. He wondered about his question. X had always had a close relationship with his father, even if Dr. Light had died long before X was activated. Dr. Light had left behind many recordings so that X would know him. Many recordings; Zero swore that X found a new one three or four times a year. But despite the indirect contact, X loved his father and felt Thomas had felt the same. Having another reploid for a father would be different, but Rock was right here, under the same roof. No wonder X was so thrilled to have him.

Zero's father was Dr. Wily, and all he knew of him were through old documents and history. He never really cared about his father, and knew that Wily would probably be outraged if he ever learned what Zero was doing. He said he never cared, although he was secretly jealous of X having Dr. Light's affection.

So could he have a father here? Possibly a mother too; he heard Rock mention something of a mother to X. So could he have two parents? How would that be?

Or was Zero always bound to be alone, with X as the closest thing to loving family as he could ever get?

* * *

 

Blues worked in his dorm, repairing damaged equipment. He had assured Balbanes that it was perfectly fine that they had a shared room. They were brothers, so neither minded. He just needed some tools to repair their equipment. That was the bad thing about long missions in wilderness areas; one could count on half of one's items getting broken or lost. And then Rock had found him and informed Blues that one of the boys he had met only an hour before could be his nephew. It was surprising that the boy was still alive.

Ska was happy; his aura light was glittering. " _Rock was happy when X came to him_ ," he said. " _At least, as happy as he can be_."

"I noticed. It's a good thing. Can you give me back the screwdriver?"

His orange light turned reddish as he blushed. " _Oh, sorry. Here you go_." He levitated the tool, then tossed it to Blues.

Blues looked through the toolbox and pulled out a large flathead screwdriver. "You can play with this one if you want. I won't need it."

Ska twinkled merrily as he caught it. " _Thanks!"_

A few minutes later, Rock came in. Blues paused in his tasks to look over at his brother. "So how'd that test go?"

Rock sat on the other bed and nodded. "He is my son, and Adanya's. Just, remember how long ago that was?"

"I know. X had to be in stasis storage; that's the only way."

"But before or after he was born? She was supposed to give him to me after that strange trial."

"I remember that. Strangest court session I've ever been to."

"But he winds up in Ikari Tower decades later..."

"That Adanya had us both fooled. Seems every new thing I learn about her, she's more twisted than I believed."

"I know. She had me completely fooled." He looked down at the floor. Sadness was something he could feel, although he seemed unable to cry.

"It's not your fault, Rock. She's the one who abused your trust. Besides, you have him finally. You can make up for the time you've missed."

"Can I? I don't know if you heard, but he has a sensitive third eye. He sees truth, and it won't be long until he notices my curse. Then what?"

"If he sees truth, then he should see it's not your fault that you're the way you are."

"I'm not sure. I can protect him and Zero, but to be what a father must be..."

Blues waited before saying, "So you are taking them both in?"

"Sure. They're as close as brothers, as close as us. It would be terrible to separate them."

"That's good. When I first met them, they insisted on staying together. I offered to talk Roll into taking them, and she would have."

"Yeah, she'll be there to fill in my weaknesses. But I don't know... I just have this feeling it will be uneasy between us for a long time."

Blues scratched his chin, considering the issue. "Well think of it this way: if you're not certain of what to do, maybe you should study our father's notes. Learn how to be a father from him. I've seen you do many things in spite of your curse, so you can do this too. I know you'll do the best you can for them. And I'll do the best I can to find a cure for the curse. I will find it."

"Blues, I..." Rock gripped the edge of the bed, tense about something.

"What?"

He shook his head. "Never mind. I'm just worried about you. You spend so much time on my problems, hardly any on your life."

"Don't think of it that way. I promise Dad I would help you. And you don't have to worry about me."

"You can't say that; I'll just worry about you more."

Blues chuckled. "I suppose." It was quiet for a minute, then Blues added, "So he has a sensitive third eye and that astrologer chick was convinced you have one too. Maybe she is right. You predicted X's arrival."

Rock shook his head. "No, that reading was so vague, anything could be read into it. But X is psychic, no question. He knew me on sight. We know reploid children will often know their mother on sight even if they were separated from her."

"In most cases."

"Yeah. But to know one's father... and did you hear how they got from Kykital to Madeline?"

"Not yet."

"X followed the past caravans along Route 370."

"But that road's been abandoned for five months. There would be no trace."

"Except as a memory of the planet and history."

That made Blues pause. "Well now... that does take considerable talent. I've never heard of a reploid oracle able to read such a faint sign."

" _It could happen_ ," Ska said from his current perch, on top of the flathead screwdriver balanced neatly on the tip. " _And really, a road memory isn't that faint_."

"You sure?"

The elf nodded. " _Many people travel down a road. Many people went down that road in search of safety, so if X looked for a path to safety, he would have found it easily. Still, seeing that means he's quite practiced in divination_."

"Ska says a road memory isn't hard to find," Blues translated for Rock, "especially if the seer is looking for similar goals."

"I'll do what I can," Rock said. "They need me."

"Roll will be there for you, and I'll keep looking for your cure. I've narrowed down the list, so it can't be much longer."

"Be careful, Blues. And keep in contact, in case I need to talk to you. I will need to talk to you sometimes."

"I'm always just a thought away, Rock."

* * *

August 25, XX54  
Route 366

The trip to Monsteropolis was much better than the trip to Fort Madeline. They were in a heated sled, they had a security scanner that alerted them to most dangers well before they showed up, and Rock and Blues were there to take care of everything. For much of the day, X and Zero didn't have to worry about anything.

Except for when a giant sheet of ice abruptly appeared in their path. It appeared as a U around the sled. Blues braked quickly, to avoid hitting the center wall, then opted to go above the ice to get out. But a pink energy net appeared and captured the sled.

Blues checked his screens. "This is too well set up..."

"There doesn't seem to be anyone around," Rock said.

The two boys were on the back bench. X got up and tapped his father. "I sense a gold-eyed monster."

"Gold-eyed monster?" Zero asked.

Rock nodded knowingly. "Most of Wily's reploids have a single silver eye. A very few others have a single gold eye."

Shortly after, the wall of ice collapsed the energy net remained. There was a flicker of green light, then a large hominoid reploid appeared. He had a white cape, tan armor, one gold eye, and looked somehow regal.

"Not again," Blues muttered.

"What are you up to now, King?" Rock called out as he stood up.

"Unfortunately, I'm not after you this time," King said spitefully. "I'm here for the children. They should have never escaped."

"We won't let you have them," Blues challenged. He stood up and activated a plasma blade. An odd one, the plasma formed like a stainless steel blade with glowing red-orange runes and flickering orange ghost flames. It also had a strong chemical smell that X thought he should know, but only recognized as some sort of explosive.

King smirked and activated his own plasma blade, bright silver with a red afterglow. "Good, then I get to kill both of you in the process. That makes this day much better."

Blues leapt out to the sled and clashed blades with King. Ska raced after Blues, then melded with his spirit, thus boosting his mobility and strength, as well as adding multiple spell blocks. Rock's armor shifted from blue to red and black as he began casting. His first spell was nine guided rays, all deep red. Blues stepped aside as the rays hit, then struck King hard. When he struck, his blade caused a small explosion.

This didn't seem to damage King much. He retaliated by forcing Blues to step back, then throwing a volley of fireballs at the sled. Although they were quick fireballs, Zero managed to be quicker. When the battle started, he started climbing over the top of the driver's bench. When the fireballs came, Zero activated Dusty Blade and deflected most of them. Rock brushed off what Zero missed. "Nice catch," he said, "but you'd better stay here."

"Okay." Zero stayed by Rock and watched for more fireballs.

X wasn't sure what he should do, so he watched Rock casting spells. Rock was now casting one X recognized as Bright Lance, which caused a pointed ray of magic to strike the target. It seemed to be doing well. But at close quarters, Blues and Ska weren't faring so well. King's weapon was doing increased damage against cyber elves. Since Blues and Ska had melded, both were taking heavy damage any time King managed to hit them. That couldn't be good.

But as X realized that, he also realized Rock was a black wizard. While he might know some healing spells, they would be weak and would take him too long to cast in battle. On the other hand, X knew that this child had learned a lot of healing spells trying to survive Ikari Tower, and they were all still recorded. He should cast one. But which one?

His mind immediately went to 3.5/E/S/b, also known as Fairy Cure. That should compensate for King's weapon. X concentrated on his uncle and began calculating the spell. It took him a full minute to finish the calculation, as opposed to Rock who was casting 9.4/H/S/150/R in twenty seconds. Then again, Rock must be a Master Wizard, whereas X wasn't even a Neophyte Mage. He was too young for a title anyhow.

Once he finished the mental calculation, Fairy Cure formed as a small green light that raced for Blues. It repaired damage to both Blues and Ska, as well as formed a shield that would counter King's anti-elf weapon. This was confirmed when King's blade hissed and sparked when it hit that shield, allowing Blues to make another explosive hit.

By now, King was heavily damaged. He separated from close combat again to cast Wall of Sunfire, which sent a ten foot wall of brilliant fire racing their way. Blues could slide right under it, but the sled was caught in the wall's path.

But Rock had shifted spells again, to one that was taking him longer than a minute to cast. Zero moved back on the driver's bench. "I can't block that," he said.

X put his hands on Zero's shoulder. "Put your sword up!"

Zero did so, holding it upright in front of him.

So far, his magic impulses had been correct, so X followed this one through. "Dusty Blade, your wielder is in danger. Please protect us."

Dusty Blade warbled in response, then flashed. A wall of dust as large as the Wall of Sunfire appeared in front of the sled. The two walls slammed into each other and were negated. King stopped for a moment, stunned to see his spell canceled like that.

Blues took the opportunity to strike King with an especially strong explosion. Just after, Rock finished calculating his spell. A large bolt of electricity struck King and not just once like a normal lightning bolt. Rock's spell caused an electrical superspark that ran for ten seconds. By the time it was over, everyone else was blinking and partly deaf. King vanished, leaving behind a small gray hologram caster. He'd never actually been there, which was why the danger scanner never went off.

But his voice remained for a moment more. "We will have those children, mark my words."

Blues came back over and sliced the energy net away. "Thanks for reminding me that you had that uber-lightning attack."

"It's Heaven Strike," Rock corrected.

"Whatever. So how'd you hit me with Fairy Cure? Ska hasn't studied any nurse abilities."

"Actually, that was X."

"Really?"

X nodded. "Here, I can fix up other wounds, if nothing is too deep."

"Nothing terrible," Blues said, as he got into the backseat with X. "You mind driving for a bit?"

Rock shook his head. "I don't mind. But you need to sit down." He said the last to the other boy.

Obediently, Zero slid down to sit. "Okay."

He started up the sled again. "So it was just another of his illusions."

"I know. As much as King talks himself up, he's just a coward at heart."

X looked his uncle over. There were four cuts that needed attending to, one that would probably take about a few days to heal. "Where do you keep your first aid kit?"

"In one of the side pockets up front. Zero, it should be the one at your right elbow."

Zero looked inside and pulled out a white box. He handed it back. "Here you go."

X opened the kit up and found several healing crystals. For a moment, he wasn't sure what to do. Then the knowledge came to him like a flash. He started calculating a different cure spell, 4.0/H/S/A. The A at the end, he thought, meant that it doubled as an antibacterial shield. He wasn't sure why Clear Cure was necessary, until Blues deactivated his armor around the worst cut. It was leaking blood and oil. That couldn't be good on the same wound.

X looked at the kit again and picked out a medicated spray to work with his spell. By the label, it would neutralize any oil that got into the bloodstream. Good. X sprayed that over the wound and then cast his spell. Next, he wrapped gauze around the cut. Ska reappeared and helped X place one of the healing crystals in the gauze. Some tape to secure the bandage, and the cut was well protected.

Blues looked over the gauze as X started on another cut. "You're good with the healing arts."

"I had to be," X said. "The people taking care of us weren't really taking care of us."

The other three cuts didn't take so long to fix. Clear Cure managed to seal all of them on its own. Ska bowed to him in midair. " _Thanks for helping and healing my partner. I can teach you a spell in exchange_."

"No, that's okay."

" _But I want to_."

"You'd better accept his spell," Blues advised. "In accordance to elf culture, he'll only offer you a lesson once, but having it declined will lower his honor."

"All right then. So what can you teach me?"

Ska fluttered his wings, happy to be teaching. " _I can teach you how to start a fire. That's good for this cold winter."_

"I know ten different fire spells."

" _Oh. Well, it is good to know a lot of those. I can teach you to walk on the snow and ice_."

"He can already do that," Blues said.

" _Um... how about night vision?"_

"I have that."

" _Double Jump?"_

"Is that double jump or double the height of one jump? Because I have a spell for the latter."

" _Double height. Elemental blocking spells?"_

X tapped his fingers as he recited, "I know A-fire, A-ice, A-wind, A-lit, A-earth..."

Ska put his hands on his hips. " _Ooo... I'll teach you something_."

X tried to stay serious, but Blues laughed. Zero looked back at them. "What are you guys talking about?"

"X knows more spells than Ska does," Blues explained.

" _How about A-poison?"_

"I don't know that one. I could have used it several weeks ago."

He looked proud to have found a spell X didn't know. " _Okay, I'll teach you that. It blocks most of the poison element, even of natural poisons_."

"That's good." X was quiet as Ska landed on his shoulder and whispered the rune formula to him. He wrote it on a piece of paper, just to make sure he had it right. Then he tested it on himself.

Ska tapped his aura. " _Good, you got it. You learn quick_."

"Thanks."

Blues called Ska back over. "Now that your lesson is over, you should take a rest."

" _Yeah, I should_." He vanished into Blues' armor.

"So what did King want with you?" Blues asked.

"I don't know," X said. "I don't recognize him."

"The master of Ikari Tower wants us back, though," Zero added. "So who was that guy?"

"King," Rock said. "He was one of Wily's commanders. Although when he first showed up, everyone thought he was acting solo." He shrugged. "King nearly went solo in the end, but then we defeated him and Wily set out to punish him."

Blues nodded. "He also punished the informant who helped us, even though we didn't entirely trust that guy either. Anyhow, King is brilliant and powerful. We thought he was done for, but he still shows up every now and then to harass us. Not sure what he's after now, but he seems to be going along with whoever's in charge of Wily's army now."

"He could be in charge," Rock pointed out.

"I don't think so. King would have done something big by now if he was in charge."

Nodding once, Rock looked over at Zero. "So who did you two know in Ikari Tower?"

"Circe Whiplash," X said when his friend got a blank expression. "She was supposed to be taking care of us, but she didn't actually."

"I'm not familiar with that name," Rock responded.

"I know her," Blues said. "Only fought her once, but I remember because she transformed my armor into the girliest thing you've ever seen, with ribbons and glitter. And as if that wasn't bad enough, I wasn't able to get it off until I got back home to ask dad about it."

"Oh, now I remember that," Rock said.

Blues rolled his eyes. "Yeah, thanks."

Zero laughed. "She never did that to us."

Leaning back, X tried to search the memories of this body. "She was still mean. Um, there were also the Dark Hunters, Quint, Enker, Punk, and Ballade. They had offices or something by our area. When they were bored, they looked for us to tease. There was also Ikari Domino, but I'm not quite sure what he was doing there."

"That's all we really know," Zero said.

"Some high level members of Wily's forces," Blues said. "Did you, by any chance, hear or see anything of Wily himself?"

Zero looked back at X. There was something in the memory of the children, but it was difficult to keep hold of the image. "Maybe," X finally answered. "We didn't know if it was really him or not, but it was someone bad..."

Zero slid back into his seat. "I don't want to talk about that," he said in a grumpy tone.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Rock said.

It was quiet for several minutes. X tried to pin down the elusive memory, but it wasn't really his, so he didn't know how to access it directly. Whenever he did get close to it, he could feel that whatever it was, it was a bad thing. Or person.

Then Zero peered back at them again, with something else on his mind. "Hey Blues, why did your sword explode when it hit King?"

"Mlapan is supposed to do that," Blues said. "Our father made it for me. It's a trigger rune blade; I can strike without the explosions, but it wouldn't do as much damage. And it's more fun to have an explosive blade."

"That was an awesome fight you had," Zero said.

He shook his head. "Nah, that was nothing. The only challenge was that his sword was enchanted to be deadly to elves, thus it was deadly to me with Ska helping."

"Zero has Dusty Blade," Rock commented. "He was doing well batting fireballs with it."

Blues looked to Zero in interest. "Oh really? Is that why his wall disintegrated, because it hit Dusty's shield?"

"Yeah, but X made it do that, not me."

X looked to his uncle. "I read somewhere that rune blades could put up shields, so long as you ask nicely."

"Not every blade, but a good majority of them can. And you must be pretty talented yourself," Blues tapped Zero's head, "to have earned Dusty Blade so young."

Looking puzzled, he asked, "You think so? It's just a dust blade."

"No, not at all. Dusty Blade is the best rune blade that a child can handle, and it must be earned."

"I didn't know that."

"Child blades are rare, I admit. There are basically three of them," Blues counted out with his fingers, "Knifelet, Twinkler, and Dusty. Knifelet's okay, a decent training blade, easy to come by, but nothing special. Twinkler is probably the strongest of the three in terms of power, but it has no shield, no reflect, very expensive, and you can't use sword magic with either Twinkler or Knifelet. Dusty must be earned and there's a limited quantity of the blades available. However, it does have a shield, low level reflecting ability, a default long distance attack, and it can use sword magic. Therefore, even though it's weaker in terms of base damage, most warriors consider Dusty the best of the child training blades."

Sword magic? X wondered if that was like Zero's special techniques back home. Zero must have been wondering the same thing, and asked, "Can you show me how to use it?"

He shook his head. "Not really. When I was a child, I was a robot, and therefore never qualified to wield Dusty. But the Dust Bunny King should be training you."

"How? I turned him into dust with a broom."

"Didn't he give you his official challenge?"

Zero sat back down a moment, then looked back at them. "I don't remember. I fought him in Shadow Palace, and my memories of that place are confusing."

"Hmm... that doesn't sound right."

Rock pointed out, "We do know some younger reploids who've been trained with Dusty in their childhood. We could ask around and see about getting you in contact with the fairy for training."

"Dust Bunny King is a fairy?"

"Yes, like Ska is."

Blues leaned on the driver's bench in front of him. "If I recall right, Dust Bunny King is a will'o'wisp, not a cyber elf."

"So he's actually a swamp fairy," X said. "But I thought will'o'wisps got people lost in misty bogs and drowned them for fun."

"Some of them do," Blues said. "Others haunt old castles and ghost towns, which is probably how that line of wisps earned the title of Dust Bunny King. I'd have to look the stories back up, but it seems this King decided the world needed more heroes, so he created twelve blades for training twelve young children to be those heroes. He trained his original set of twelve to defeat the Master of Shadow Palace and they did. Now he roams the world in search of children with the potential to become heroes."

"But you must be careful with this blade and training," Rock said. "The Dust Bunny King wants heroes, not bullies. He requires his children adhere to the code of honor that most adult heroes follow. If you break the code or become too much of a bully, the blade will be taken from you and you may never get it back."

"I see. I'll be careful, then."


	8. The Light's House

August 25, XX54  
Light residence, Monsteropolis

Roll was reading, not quite tired enough to sleep. Her days were always busy taking care of this old building. It was her house, a historical site, an operational laboratory, and an inn. But it made her happy that her home was so important.

There was a soft knock on the door. "Miss Light?"

She looked up from her book. "Hmm, what is it Sonya?"

In the doorway, the mermaid reploid smiled at her. "We just got another reservation for the third weekend of September."

"Then we're full for that time, if I remember right."

"Yes. I thought you should know, just in case. It's a family of six."

"Okay... might need to adjust the menu, but we can work with it."

"All right." Roll's personal computer buzzed with a call. "Well, I'll leave you alone for whoever that is."

"I'm probably going to bed shortly. Good night."

"Good night Roll." Sonya went upstairs to her own room.

Checking the incoming number, she was pleased to see it was Blues. Because they were out in the snowfield, it was an audio-only connection. She put it through. "About time you checked in," she teased him.

"I'd say," he replied, equally joking. "Can't go half a year without checking up on you, can I?"

"Seems like you can."

"I try. Rock and I are coming home; thought you should know."

"Great, it's been, what, since Christmas?"

"About that. And we need the break. We just got back from Ikari Tower."

That caused her some worry. "So you found the place? How bad was it?"

"Truly nasty. The dark energy of the area was enough to make Ska sick. We were all there a little too long."

"Is Rock okay?"

"He's asleep right now. He was in a bad way for a while, but he's back to normal. You know, quiet and indifferent. I still don't like it."

Yeah. Rock often seemed as if he were sleepwalking through the days when he came home. "I don't either."

"But being back home should help some, after being in such a place."

"It will. So when are you guys coming in?"

"How about dinner tomorrow?"

She grinned, but had to tease him about it. "Tomorrow? Can't you be more considerate?"

He laughed, knowing the tease went both ways. "Kidding you again. We're still two days out, so the twenty-seventh."

"That's better, I can work with that."

"Oh, but we are bringing some extras back home. Hope you don't mind."

Considering how things were… "Well, the inn's isn't even half-full now. Who're dragging along?"

"A real special pair. You remember about thirty-six or thirty-nine years ago and that god-awful Adanya woman?"

Roll scowled. "How could I forget her? After what she put Rock through."

"We found their son."

She put her book down and looked at the computer, even if it was only patching Blues' voice. "You found Rock's son?"

"Yeah, so we know she was lying to the very end. This boy, X, he's three and a half years old. And, I can't be sure this has anything to do with Adanya, but I wouldn't put it past her: he's spent most of his life so far in Ikari Tower."

"Really? That's terrible. I'd say she had something to do with it. She at least put him in stasis storage. That's the only way it could have been so long ago and he's only three."

"Right. I know Rock probably doesn't want to go through that court routine again, but Adanya can't get away with what she's done, even just what we know of. It'd be wrong."

"I know. So you two rescued him from the Tower?"

"No. It's a strange story, almost a miracle. X was living with another boy trapped in Ikari Tower, a reploid by the name of Zero. Zero's actually younger, just at three years old, but the two of them decided to escape through Shadow Palace. Somehow they made it through that place and were dumped out by Kykital, and then made the long trek to Fort Madeline on their own. Some angel's been watching them, I'm sure of that."

"Oh wow, no kidding. Those two must be quite brave and determined."

"Considering where they were, they might not have had another choice. But yeah, I'm impressed. Before X and Rock found each other out, I met with them and promised I'd pull every string to get you to adopt them. I know you could take good care of them."

Roll laughed. "It wouldn't take that much."

"Good."

"Although between the kids and the inn... we've gotten quite busy the past few years, which is why I haven't adopted again. But I'll find a way."

"You'll have help. Rock is quitting the Snow Patrol for now and transferring to Monsteropolis City Guard, so he can be with X. He'll need help, though. He's not too confident in this new role."

"He should do fine, even in his condition."

"And I'll help as long as I can manage. You know."

She frowned slightly. Blues just could not stay in one place. "Yeah, I know you, and your promises. Do try to find Rock's cure soon."

"I'm working on it every day."

* * *

%%%

August 27  
Light residence, Monsteropolis

For a single family home, the Light family home was huge. But with all the skyscrapers around it, it seemed small and antique at the same time. It was welcoming, warm, and the entrance hall smelled of a home cooked dinner. X and Zero smiled at each other. This would be great.

A blond reploid woman came up to them and hugged Blues and Rock. "Oh, it's wonderful to have you guys back."

"It's always good to be home," Rock said, although his voice didn't sound enthusiastic.

Blues detached his outer winter armor. "And it's great to be back to your cooking." She laughed. "Boys, this is our sister, Roll. And Roll, this would be X and Zero."

She smiled warmly and shook hands with them. "It's good to meet you two."

"Hello, aunt Roll," X said.

"Hi," was all Zero would say.

Roll led them into the hall. "And you guys should meet this wonderful person. This is Sonya Chi Guise, one of my helpers."

She blushed and seemed a little awed to be in the presence of Rock and Blues. The orange haired reploid kept her silky fins close in, a modest stance. "Oh, I'm not that wonderful... and I never thought I'd meet you heroes..."

"You are wonderful. Dinner's about ready, so you should wash up."

The food was as great as Blues made it out to be. There was a lot of friendly conversation, especially between the three siblings. But it was very late for dinner. X and Zero were tired, so they went to bed shortly after.

* * *

%%%

August 28  
Monsteropolis

Sigma, the terror of one world, was playing in a playground.

Not so much playing as being there. Roger continued to be worried about him, constantly checking up on him and asking why he was staying indoors when he could be playing with friends outdoors. Their so-called parents were worried too, but both were busy people. David worked most of the day downstairs in the Monsteropolis City Guard Headquarters. Zeta worked in the hospital as a birthing engineer. At least, Sigma thought she had said birthing engineer. He didn't understand what the title meant, other than it had something to do with child reploids. Roger did have a part time job somewhere, but he had been the one to pester Sigma into agreeing to go out. Just this once, to shut him up.

He climbed to the top of the largest play set and sat in one of the plastic bubbles. He watched the kids play down below. It was odd. When he was down with them, he thought he was a child too, and felt a strong inclination to play with others and slide down the big slide. But he wasn't a child. He was a master among reploids, a commander of armies. Not someone who'd play tag.

Watching from up here, he noticed the human and reploid children all playing together, like they were equals. None of them seemed to care that the two species were radically different. Sigma couldn't understand this. Couldn't they see that reploids were better than humans, that his kind could do so much more? Or maybe it was because they were children, he mused. Maybe they weren't old enough to know any better. When they grew up, things would be as normal. Which was still wrong, but Sigma could always change the norm.

From time to time, he noticed one reploid child or another that seemed strangely familiar. Sometimes it was like 'recognizing' his family, but other times it was like... but that was silly. But then he noticed a very familiar child running up to the swings. This child was wearing full body armor, which was purple and very familiar. Vile. This was Vile as a child? Yes, it seemed to be him. He was lacking shoulder cannons and any weapons at all. But the helmet and the color scheme suggested this was indeed Vile.

Sigma looked at the next child in the swings and concluded he must be Slash Beast. Another child running in the sands seemed an awful lot like Red from Red Alert. And the one on the monkey bars was almost certainly Spark Mandrill. So at least some of his peers were here too, as children. No, not his peers... this world was like an imperfect mirror of his own, so these were just alternate versions of his followers. And his enemies, he thought, as he watched Red start to argue with another child about a carelessly tossed aside toy.

He recalled seeing a brilliant white light at Ikari Tower, before he managed to get back up. Perhaps he'd seen things wrong. He thought that X and Zero had died from that light. But maybe they were here too, the ones he knew. He wondered where they were now.

"Hey, get out of there, spoiled brat," a kid said from just behind him. "This is our spot."

Sigma looked back and noticed a child that had to be Dynamo. His long white hair was the same. His armor almost was, but he wore chipped sunglasses and an old baseball cap instead of his usual helmet. Along with him was Lumine, who somehow appeared tougher as a kid than as the adult Sigma knew. "And you'd better be prepared to pay for your sit too, shrimp," Lumine added. "Or we're going to cream you."

He felt intimidated for a moment, which only sharpened his anger when it appeared. He stood up and tried to stare Lumine down, but he was older and bigger. "I'll sit where I want to, girls."

Dynamo shrugged the insult off, but Lumine got furious. "What? You'd better take that back, snot nose."

"I'm not afraid of you." Recalling that this world was superstitious, he added, "My destiny is written in the stars; your destiny is to be nothing more than a screaming baby."

"What do you know of destiny?"

"I heard one of the solstice stars hit you, Sigma," Dynamo said. "Is that true?"

"Yeah, it did."

He shifted his sunglasses. "Hey, maybe we should let him in. You know, since the stars marked him for greatness."

Lumine did not look pleased. "What, Sigma Cain, the prodigy of an unholy union?"

Where did he pick up that sort of language as a kid, Sigma wondered. "My mother betrayed me in choosing my father," he replied.

Dynamo smiled. "Well he has the right idea. Maybe he just needs some training."

Lumine glared. "I will not have a weakling in our unit." Then he punched Sigma.

Or tried to. Sigma ducked out of his swing, then punched Lumine in the face. When he put his hands up reflexively, Sigma punched him in the stomach, then shoved him. Lumine stumbled back, just short of the entrance to the rope ladder. That proved he wasn't a weakling, but that wasn't near enough for Sigma. He shoved Lumine once more, off the play set.

Dynamo ran over to look. Lumine sat up, looking painfully surprised while holding his nose. Every other child in the playground stopped to stare at Lumine. Some of them looked fearful. Sigma felt delighted. "Who's the weakling now?" he called down. "You couldn't throw a punch to save your life."

Lumine's eyes twitched, then he got up and ran for home, crying. But no child went to help him. They all jeered Lumine, or cheered Sigma. Dynamo chuckled. "Well you're not so bad. For a spoiled brat, I mean."

Something came to him, so he replied, "You're still just a dirty street urchin."

"Whatever. Come here." Dynamo moved to an area of the play set that made it hard to eavesdrop without being noticed. "You should know that Lumine was our leader, and that any time a leader falls or runs from a fight, the victor usually takes over."

"Leader of what?"

"A special reploid-only group. You ought to join, you know. Our unit may just be kids, but the whole group is global, and powerful. We'll rule the world someday."

So this world wasn't entirely hopeless. "You sure about that?"

"Well of course. Humans built us reploids to replace them, even if they don't realize it yet. And the stars have picked you for greatness. Join us and you could be our great leader that everyone's been looking for. Trust me; I've got a lot of power in this group. I know who's who and who could get you ahead."

"How can you? You're just a street kid."

"I won't always be," he insisted. "People don't believe I'll be anything now, but just you wait. I'll be one of the richest and most powerful reploids out there someday."

This was Dynamo, without a doubt. Sigma looked into his sunglasses and crossed his arms over his chest. "So why do you want to help me?"

Rubbing his chin, he tried to strike a knowledgeable pose. "Look, I know things. I watch and listen where no one thinks I am. And I've watched you. I knew you were destined for greatness, even before the star hit you. You're smart, nobody can beat you in virtual battles, and you've got a knack for leadership. Your main problem is your father. That human knows how powerful you'll be; he knows that if he doesn't gain control over you now, he won't be able to stop you when you grow up. He's been keeping you nice, safe, and happy so you'll keep in line. He doesn't love you. You're just another reploid to him, someone to control."

"How can you say that?" Sigma asked, before he could catch himself. "He loves me and my mom."

"He needs to control your mom too, you know," Dynamo said, apparently getting a big kick out of 'ruining' Sigma's vision of family. "She knows everything that reploids are capable of with current technology, and he needs to know that so he can control the reploids of the city. And I know your mom used to be a great warrior, but when she got married, she locked away her battle powers to live a soft cushy life. Sigma, you can be great; you just need to wake up to the truth and realize how dangerous your home life is to your destiny."

"You're just mean," Sigma said. "I'm going home."

Dynamo caught his arm before he left down the slide. "Here, take this with you, but don't show it to anybody." He slipped Sigma a small book. "Read it, and then watch your life with open eyes. When you realize that I speak the truth, come back here and find me. I'll teach you your true destiny."

Sigma left the playground, but looked back before crossing the street. Dynamo had come down to talk to Vile on the swings. He knew what Dynamo was saying was right. So why did he feel so upset by those words?

* * *

%%%

August 29  
Light residence

"We're going to get your rooms painted and decorated," Roll told the boys. "You can do whatever you want with them." She knew from experience that letting them have control over what their personal space looked like would help them settle into this place as their new home.

"Whatever we want?" Zero asked.

"We do have a budget to stick to, but yes, you're in charge here."

X was looking over the projector unit. "And we use this to test out colors and stuff?"

"Yes, just pick somewhere to start and this will show you what it will look like."

"I like red," Zero said, since they were in his room.

"That's a good starting point." Roll set the projector to red. "Hmm, maybe not so bright."

Zero twisted the knobs and insisted that he would not have any pink in his room. But all the while, he and X kept having quiet exchanges. Roll let them; she felt that if she tried disrupting them, they'd have a harder time trusting her. She'd taken care of abused children before, and it was always difficult balancing trust and gentle discipline.

She did overhear X whisper, "We can try telling her, at least."

"Hmm, did you ask me something?" Roll responded.

"Um, no."

"We did have something we wanted to talk to you about," Zero said. "Something we need help with."

X put his hands on his knees. "I know it's going to sound really strange, but we're being honest with it. Really. We're not children."

They'd also been in Shadow Palace a long time, she recalled, and they were going to believe all sorts of strange things. At this point, with their minds still clouded, it was probably best to go along. "You're not children?"

"We're just stuck in these bodies for the time being," Zero explained. "Someone brought us here from another world." He looked at X.

"We were going to do something, but something went wrong. I'm not sure what went wrong, but we need to get back to our home soon. But, well, it's hard to remember our home world."

"We're not from outer space or something, just from another version of this world... in the future, I think. Is that right?"

X nodded. "Yeah, I think that's right. We kinda left at a bad time too."

Roll thought about it. She knew of refugees from another world suddenly appearing because their world had disintegrated. But they all came over five years ago, before these two were born. And the refugees could remember their world perfectly. "I see. So you can't remember anything of your home world?"

"Well not around other people," Zero said. "We both know and our memories are the same. Right X?"

"I don't know," X said quietly. "Maybe it was all wishful thinking."

Zero looked very confused. "X? But we know..."

"I don't know!" X said, putting his head on his knees. "The shadows are chasing us, making the world into lies. We can't escape without..."

"X, it hasn't changed for a long time. This has to be real."

"How do you know that for sure?"

Having control over their own space would help these two greatly, Roll thought. She hugged X. "It'll be fine, X. You're safe. Your mind will clear of the shadows in time."

* * *

%%%

August 30  
hardware store

"I don't know what came over me yesterday," X said. "I'm sorry. I just had this sudden burst of fear and doubt, and it seemed to turn my whole world upside down."

Zero tapped a bell on the paint counter. "I understand. I saw it in your eyes."

"My eyes?"

"Yeah, you should know. You told me once that the eyes were the windows of the soul. When you said it was all wishful thinking, your eyes were different. I saw it was you, but not quite you. You did look very afraid, more than you ever are. At least, how I know you." He shrugged. "So maybe these child bodies can take over our actions from time to time. They did live a hellish life, so they're not going to trust what they see."

"You're right." X sighed. "Geez, at this rate, no one is going to believe us. I'm certain now that this wasn't what that child had in mind, but I can't figure out what his original plan was. So now we're on our own trying to find a way back so this mess can be straightened out."

"Yeah. I wouldn't mind trying to fight those dragons, especially if we got them separate, but only if we have our normal bodies. Although... I did see something odd between Ikari Tower in our world and Shadow Palace in this one."

"Really? What?"

"I saw a lake of fire, in a cave. It was an immense lake, way bigger than this building. I heard chanting, so I followed the sounds to a platform over the lake. I saw a child reading aloud from a book, and a dragon of fire swimming in the lake. Somehow I believed that in the chant, the child was unknowingly calling the dragon to eat him. But when I came out to stop him, he turned and I saw this child looking up at me. It was creepy."

"It would be. So was that the Fire Dragon we saw?"

"He didn't look quite the same, but I think so. Oh, here she comes." Roll came back to them. "Did you find the stuff?"

"Yes, rollers, trays, sheets, tape, everything on my list. How about your paint?"

"The paint person isn't here," X said. "So Zero's been ringing the bell nonstop."

He grinned. "It's fun!"

"Hang on, learn some patience." A store worker finally came to the desk. "Sorry, we've had some problems."

"I understand," Roll said, pushing the bell out of Zero's reach.

For Zero's room, they ordered Spicy Cinnamon, a deep red-brown which was very natural, as well as Parchment, a creamy off-white. For X's room, they got Seafoam, a light blue-green and Gemstone Sapphire, a bright gloss blue for accents. Both of them were very happy with the results.

* * *

%%%

September 3  
Light residence

Roll went into her office and found Rock using the main computer. "What are you doing?"

His eyes stayed on the screen. "Sonya said she didn't understand the financial program so I was going to teach her. Then I noticed all your records are messy, so I decided to clean them up for you."

She sat on the other side of the desk. "Thanks. I do record everything I can, but I was never as good as you about organizing lists and numbers. My last secretary took care of the financial details, but she had to quit a few months ago."

"Okay. I can work on that if you want. So long as you do keep track of everything."

"I do. And if you are going to work on finances, you should know that the west wing needs renovation work soon. We've been able to get by so far making minor repairs, but in order to get everything in good shape, it's going to take a lot of money."

"All right. I'll go over everything carefully and make sure you're ready for something like that."

"It'll be good to know. Oh, and I'm putting your son and his friend to work with cleaning starting tomorrow. Nothing hard, but little things here and there to help out."

He nodded. "That's good. You're the child expert; you know what they're able to do."

"I'll do what I can." Roll stared at Rock's eyes until he got the point and looked at her. "But, you know, it's going to be difficult working with them. Right now, they believe they can only trust each other and they could get punished for the smallest offense. We can try to help them out and make them feel secure, but it could be a while before they really trust us and get into normal child behaviors."

"I see. I'll do what I can too... but you know, I'm hardly normal myself."

She patted his arm. 'You'll do fine, I'm sure of it. Just don't hesitate to ask me for anything, whether it has to do with the kids or not."

A smile flickered on his face, but was gone too quick. "I know."

* * *

%%%

September 4

"X! Get up!" Zero pushed on his bed, hoping that would disturb him into getting up.

X pulled his blanket over his head. "Leave me alone," he said grumpily.

"Remember we said we'd help Roll out."

X mumbled something unintelligible.

"It's 8:30, you have to be up."

X didn't respond this time.

Zero frowned. Roll had told him to get X up so they could have breakfast and start their new chore list. And they had been getting up about 7 o'clock every morning, so why was he still asleep? Whatever. It was Zero's job to get him up. Zero climbed onto the bed and jumped on the mattress. "Get up, get up, get up!"

X threw the blanket back. "Oh fine. I'm up."

They went downstairs and had breakfast, although X was half-asleep through Roll's instructions. Not long after, Roll found X asleep on a couch in the parlor. She nudged him gently. "Come on sleepyhead, it isn't time for that."

But he was sleeping like a rock, so Roll let him be for another hour. Then X got up, apologized, and went about his chores. But he kept yawning and didn't seem entirely awake yet. Zero was currently cleaning the kitchen floor, so Roll got X alone in an empty guest suite.

"Is something wrong, dear?" she asked him. "You're very tired; did you get any sleep last night?"

"No. I couldn't sleep until this morning."

"Why not?"

X glanced around to see if he could slip out of the conversation in any way. His problem was a little embarrassing and very childish. But I am a child now, he told himself, so maybe this wouldn't seem so bad. "There's a monster in my closet," he finally admitted. "It followed me from Shadow Palace and it wants to eat me."

Roll felt relieved that this was a fairly normal problem. "Oh that's not good."

"I figured out that if I turn my lights on, it'll go away, but as soon as I turn them off again, it comes back. And I can't sleep with that bright light on overhead. I even tried just the lamp, but I couldn't sleep with that on and the monster started messing with the shadows to scare me."

"Do you want a nightlight? I can find one for you."

"I'm not a baby. Besides, Zero would make fun of me. It doesn't hunt him. Just me."

"Well you need some sort of safe light that will keep it away and let you sleep."

X was a little confused about the existence of the closet monster outside of Shadow Palace. He had told Zero about it, but he had thought the idea silly, which was why X didn't want him knowing that was keeping him up. If one of the adults happened to walk by X's room, the monster disappeared, which probably meant it wasn't actually there. But whenever it did show up, X's adult sensibilities seemed to vanish, leaving him terrified of something he knew logically couldn't hurt him. "I don't want to be eaten."

Then Roll smiled. "Ah, I know what can help you. I have some touch lamps that I keep around for blackouts. You can set that under your bed; the monster won't be able to get you if it can't come to your bed and the light will be out of your sight so you can sleep. And if you don't want anyone to know about it, you can put the lamp in your dresser during the day."

"But you know."

She gripped his shoulder, reassuring him. "I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"Okay, I'll try that."

* * *

%%%

For one reason or another, the cleaning robots had decided to avoid the kitchen floor for a week. While Blues was trying to figure out why, Zero wound up with the job of cleaning the kitchen floor. The regular brooms were much too big for him to use, so he made his toy broom appear. "At least you're good for something," he muttered to it.

He started along a row of cabinets, brushing out stray flour, dust, and bits of grit. He thought of whether he should make a bunch of small piles of dirt or one large pile. But then he noticed that there was no pile under his broom. Zero checked and the area he had swept was clear. He watched his next sweep and noticed that his broom was absorbing the dust and dirt it was collecting. That was odd. All well. One less step in cleaning this floor.

After he had the room swept clear, he put the broom against the doorway. "Now stay there, stupid broom."

He went back into the kitchen to make some mop water. As Roll had suggested, he used warm water, a concentrated cleaning solution, plus a bit of lemon juice. There was one mop that had an extended handle. He wasn't sure why that was, but it meant that he could leave the handle small and use it properly. Zero mopped the floor and wondered why he had talked to his broom. He'd never talked to any other inanimate objects, well, excluding radios and communications equipment. Must be another one of those kid things, he concluded.

As he finished up, one of the cleaning robots came by, investigated, then decided to clean the kitchen floor. Zero glared at it. "Oh, now you decide to clean the floor, after I already did it."

He resisted the urge to dump the dirty water onto the floor. Instead, he took it to the bathroom. He looked at the broom as he went by, but didn't say anything to it this time. In the bathroom, he dumped the water down the bathtub drain and set the bucket to the side, as Roll had said. There. That was done. He turned to leave the bathroom and was stopped by his broom. It was floating a foot off the floor.

Zero came out carefully, examining the broom. There were no wires, no anti-grav devices, nothing apparent that could make a broom float. The copper stars were glowing. Zero took hold of the handle and noticed a force pressing against his hand. No, not his hand; it was pressing against gravity, keeping itself aloft. And it was a considerable force.

He wondered if he could ride his broom. His mind next dismissed that as a silly idea. Then his mind seemed to plead with itself, curious and eager to try. Puzzled by his conflicting feelings, Zero went ahead and pulled himself onto the broom's handle. It drifted lower to help him on, then floated up to about four feet off the floor.

Zero grinned. This was great! Even if he had no explanation for it, it made up for the lousy excuse of a weapon it was. Now if he could just control its movements...

With some experimenting, he figured out how to move forward and change his speed. He stopped at the end of the hall, near a large cabinet. Figuring out how to turn and change his altitude was harder. As he messed around, he touched the ribbons holding the stars on. It sent a strange message into his mind. 'Star Chaser. Status: Excellent. Weapons charge: 1 unit.'

So his broom was called Star Chaser. And it had a weapons charge? What sort of weapon would a broom have? He soon found a trigger button near the ribbons. Without thinking, he pressed it.

There was an explosion of air, like someone had popped an overfilled balloon. A whirlwind of dirt rushed around him, hitting the cabinet and toppling it onto him. Zero found himself trapped under the heavy debris, crying. It hurt, but not as bad as Zero found himself hurt routinely in the Hunters. He tried to stop crying, but wasn't successful.

Not long after, Blues pulled the heaviest piece of wood off him. "Hey Zero, you all right?"

"I didn't mean to do it," he said. "It just fell on me."

Roll came down the stairs. "Oh my... what caused this mess?"

"Cabinet fell over onto Zero," Blues said. "And here I thought that thing would never move from this spot."

She picked him up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he insisted, even if he was still crying and hurt some.

"Might be a little bruised up, but he seems okay."

"What happened?"

"I was flying on my broom..." he looked down at where Blues had picked up his broom and set it against the wall. It wasn't well balanced, so slipped and clattered onto the floor. "I was. And then..." Should he really tell them he had fired off a weapon indoors?

Roll looked at Blues for a moment. Maybe they didn't expect him to hear, but Blues softly said, "No way he could tip this over. Accident."

She nodded. Zero watched his broom, but it remained on the floor. The copper stars were no longer glowing. If he were in his usual body, then yeah, he could have picked that cabinet up and thrown it down the hall. Not now. He hated being a weak little child. Especially when it seemed the adults with him didn't believe him.

"Let's check you over for cuts or splinters," Roll said. "You should be more careful playing around."

"It was an accident."

"I know, but you were supposed to be cleaning the kitchen floor." She put him down in one of chairs in her office.

But he had done the kitchen floor. And why was he still crying? Zero felt a flare of anger and shame. Roll pushed some of his hairs out of his face, and before he could catch himself, he bit her hand.

"Ow," Roll caught herself before saying anything more. She took his chin with her other hand; a burning sensation made him let go. "Zero, you shouldn't bite people," she said sternly.

He grabbed her hand and tried to shove her away. "Don't touch me!"

"I think you need a time out."

"What?" he growled at her.

"You are going to stay in that chair," she said firmly. "If you can be quiet and good for ten minutes, I'll let you go. And you should think about how you've been acting."

"That's stupid."

"But you will stay there until you are behaving better. You can do that, right?"

Zero glared at her, but didn't respond. It was a stupid punishment. He could just get out of the chair and run off, especially after she moved away. But with the way she challenged him, he went ahead and stayed in the chair. He would prove this was a stupid punishment.

However, he found it hard to stay angry for ten minutes. There were no outside aggressive forces for him to focus on. The office was clean and calm. One of the computers was playing music, but it was instrumental, soothing rather than irritating. And then there was Roll herself, who ignored the fact that Zero had just bit her and tended to his bruises. She kept calm and didn't seem worried about being bit again. Once she made sure he was okay, she cleaned up her wound.

That made it even harder to stay mad. His shame grew as he watched her bandage up her hand, then start working quietly on some paperwork. She even left the room for a brief moment, but he stayed in the chair. As the ten minutes went on, he began to feel a strange sense of fear. He wasn't sure why, but he was worried that this was only the first part of punishment.

Ten minutes went by, and Zero was quiet, ashamed, and afraid. Roll came up to him. "Okay, you may go now."

"That's all?" he asked, suspicious.

"That's all. You need to watch your temper in the future; for now, I don't have any more chores for you. And thank you for cleaning up the kitchen."

Zero mumbled, "You're welcome," then ran out of the room.

* * *

%%%

It was getting late. X opened his dresser drawer and pulled out the touch lamp. It was about five inches in diameter and resembled a large button. Touching it activated an LCD light. It was bright, but if he put it under his bed, it should flood the floor with light. That would keep the closet monster from reaching him.

"Hey X," Zero called.

X shut the touch lamp off and looked in his doorway. Zero was there, floating five feet off the floor on his broom. "What are you doing?"

Zero grinned. "Isn't this great? I figured it out this afternoon."

X got on his bed and stood on it, so he could look Zero in the face. "That is. Isn't that the broom you used against the Dust Bunny King?"

"Yeah. So I have a flying broom and a sort of decent blade. I'm better off then I thought I was."

"I just have a Nerf gun. See?" X activated it and popped the ball off Zero's head.

He grinned. "Hey! Well even so, you have a massive amount of spells in your head, it seems like."

"I do. Hey, maybe we can fight the dragons now."

"What, now?"

"Yeah. You can fly around the dragon and find a missing scale. You tell me where it is and I'll fire a Ray Arrow, or something, at it. And the dragon will be dead."

"Really? You think that could work?"

X shrugged, dropping down to sit on the bed. "That's how they beat Smaug. It's worth a shot."

"Hey, you two," Blues called. Zero dropped abruptly out of the air and onto X's bed. "Time for you to be getting to bed."

They looked at each other, and then at Blues when he appeared. "Um, we were," X said.

"You two weren't jumping on his bed now, were you?"

'Um, not exactly," Zero replied.

"You might not want to do that, then. You might crack your skull plate open."

"Gross," X said with a cringe.

"Go on to bed. See you boys tomorrow."

"Good night."

Zero got off the bed after Blues left. "Why'd I fall when he showed up? It happened earlier too; when Blues and Roll came after me, the broom wouldn't fly."

X thought. "I don't know anything about magic brooms."

"At least you believe me in that it flies. So what are you doing with that?"

"Oh, this?" He looked at the touch lamp. "Well..."

"Come on, you can tell me."

"Okay, but don't laugh. There's a monster in my closet. It kept me up all last night, so I'm going to use this to keep it away."

"Closet monster?"

"I'm not kidding. I don't know why, but when it comes, I'm so scared that I can't sleep."

Zero scratched his chin, then said, "I've been talking to inanimate objects all day. I guess I'll let that slide."

X smiled, amused. "Inanimate objects? You talk to them?"

"Now you can't laugh. I just start giving orders to objects without thinking."

"These child bodies are influencing us more than I suspected."

"I know. But hey; if that closet monster wakes you up again, you come get me. I'll scare that monster away."

X nodded. "Okay, I'll do that."

* * *

%%%

It was late, but Roll was still up. She was tired, but her mind kept wandering around in circles, with questions she couldn't answer. Finally, she got up and walked through the house.

Zero was bothering her thoughts now. She knew one had to discipline children so they learned proper behaviors. But she never liked having a child mad directly at her. At least X had told her about his monster problem. And she knew now that Zero was a biter. Roll knew how to deal with childhood monsters and biting.

But how to deal with Rock and his anxiety at being a father? Under normal circumstances, she knew what would help. But as he had said, this situation was hardly normal. Not just the curse; accepting X into his life meant Rock had to deal with his memories of X's mother, Adanya. And that was nearly as bad as the Soul Winter curse.

Roll didn't know the entire story. She doubted anyone involved, even Adanya and Rock, knew the whole story. Adanya was maybe a nurse, maybe a poet... definitely a liar. From what Roll understood, she became infatuated with Rock and decided to use a love potion on him. Rock fell for it and for a time was passionately obsessed with her. Then something happened; maybe Adanya realized Rock wasn't who she thought he was. Rock's public image was not the same as his private, even back then. There was a nasty argument and they broke up.

It was a messy breakup. Still under the influence of the love potion, Rock pined after Adanya and eventually ran out of Monsteropolis to pursue her. Rock wouldn't speak of that period in his life, but when Roll saw him next, he was distraught because Adanya was with his child and wasn't going to give him up. Thomas had not liked the situation from the start, but suggested they try legal means to gain the child. Then came a long, tiresome court game where the Lights used law and logic while Adanya used bribery and blackmail.

After two and a half years of court bureaucracy, there was a rather memorable trial in which even X seemed tired of the whole game (although they hadn't known his name yet). The judge gave strict orders that Adanya give her son up to Rock and never go near the Light family again. She should have been unable to wriggle her way out of that judgment. However, she claimed and somehow proved that the child had crashed, rendering everything they had done pointless.

But if X was Rock son, and they could scientifically prove it, Adanya had to be his mother. After that disaster, and the curse not long after, Rock was never interested in love again. Blues could confirm that, in case anyone doubted.

Roll thought about it. Reploid children first appeared as electronic information, as purely mental beings. Since their bodies had to be built outside the mother's body, a reploid child could theoretically stay in its mother's mind indefinitely. Most women didn't want that, so if the child came at a bad time, the parents usually put the child into stasis. The embryonic mind was transferred from the living mother into a lifeless computer, where it would stay frozen, so to speak, until the parents were ready. Roll was supposed to carry X in her mind while they made his body. But then Adanya cheated the law. She was the one person Roll could honestly say she wished would go to hell.

While they knew X's parents, Zero was a complete mystery. Sonya had suggested that a close friend of her's, Neko, looked an awful lot like Zero. But Neko had been with Sonya's husband, and both were still missing, considered dead. They couldn't test a relationship between Neko and Zero because of that. Through some kink in the law, no one could access Neko's DNA profile, or Star's for that matter, for ten years. Roll asked Sonya the obvious question: if Neko was Zero's father, then who was his mother? She said she didn't have a clue.

And thinking of similarities, Zero and Neko both looked an awful lot like another reploid, this one from Dr. Wily. But that one had never even been alive. Right? There had always been questions with that one...

In her walk, Roll had wound up in front of a special computer. She came down here occasionally, if she was feeling down or confused. She was both tonight. But checking her log, it had been a few years since she'd come here. Not that it made much difference. Although she didn't remember it taking this long before. She checked lines that she usually ignored.

One of them said, 'Data corrupted/missing/deleted. Incapable of retrieval.'

Everything else flew out of her mind. Something important was missing.

She stared at the screen for a long time.

* * *

%%%

September 5

X was bored, but didn't know where Zero was. He looked around the house, but it was so big. He reached the attic and heard voices. Rock and Blues were here. Curious, X walked around boxes and old things until he found them, sitting on the floor looking through several boxes. "What're you doing?

Blues smiled on seeing him. "Hey X. We're just looking at old stuff. You can join us if you like, although I don't know how interesting it'll be to a kid like you."

"You never know," Rock said. "Dad saved a lot of stuff."

So these were things that went back to when Dr. Light was alive? That interested X very much. He sat down next to his father. "Anything in particular you're looking for?"

Rock shrugged. "Not exactly. Although we were talking about some old friends, the Cossacks."

"I know we have a copy of old man Cossack's notes somewhere."

"But everything's so dusty up here and Cossack wasn't quite as organized as dad. Somewhere in those boxes," Rock pointed to ten good-sized boxes, "should be that spell information."

"Hopefully," Blues amended. "Cossack was into arcane and obscure spell mechanics."

"I know a lot about spells," X said. "I read lots of spell books in Ikari Tower."

"The spell we're looking for would be there. But we don't really want to go back to that area until we know the spell, so the aura of the place doesn't overwhelm Rock and Ska again."

"Oh. I was inside the Tower, so I'm not sure how to ward off the outer spells. I do remember looking over the architectural plans. The spell bothering you... do you have something I could write runes on?"

Rock pulled out a notepad and a pen. "Always do. Never know when I'll run into an unknown rune."

"Yeah, I know." X thought about it. While he'd offered the information, it took a minute for him to bring up the specifics. Then he drew out a ten long rows of runes. They were like hieroglyphs rather than letters or numbers. His notes filled the paper. He handed it back to Rock. "There, that's what I can remember from the protective spell list."

Blues leaned over so he could look at the list too. Both of them seemed to know exactly what X had written out. "That looks right. It matches what we experienced."

"But it's not Wily's usual style," Rock said. He pointed out a particular line. "He wouldn't think of that. So Domino might actually be an accomplice and not another ruse."

"Hmm, you're right. Can I take that? I'll put this into the lab generators downstairs and see if I can extract more information. You can keep looking for those spell files, if you like." He tapped Rock's shoulder as he stood up. "Now that you've got knowledgeable help."

"Okay." He gave Blues the paper. "Good luck with that."

He nodded and went downstairs. X looked at the various piles, not sure what was already searched through. He picked up an open album. His eyes were immediately drawn to one of the photos. There were several individuals in the picture, most noticeably Dr. Light. "What's this?"

"Pictures from the old days. This guy here is Dr. Cossack, and that's his daughter Kalinka. She was really smart too. That's one of Cossack's robots, Skull Man... poor guy. And that's me."

X looked at the younger looking Rock. "That's you when you were a kid?"

"Not exactly. I was a robot, not a reploid, when this picture was taken. I was never really a kid as a reploid."

"Oh. And what about him?" He pointed to Dr. Light.

Rock smiled. X knew him enough by this point to know that smile was unusual, because it didn't flicker away. "Oh, that's my father, Thomas Light. I always loved him, although around this time I could only experience a shallow sort of love, not the real thing."

So this was a family album. Of course, back at home, X couldn't show up in any such thing. This was a different world and history... but X was always interested in learning anything new about Dr. Light. And if it would make Rock happy in his handicapped state, that was even better. "What was he like?"

"He was wonderful in every way." Rock flipped back a few pages, with other photos of him and Dr. Light. "The three of us were only robot masters for thirty years, but he still called us his children. He had this sense that we weren't complete back then, that we could be far more than we seemed to be. People called him an old romantic fool, but he knew. He worked at us constantly, inventing new technologies, trying out experiments no one else dared to perform. And then finally, about seventy years ago, he did yet another overhaul on me, and my mind opened. I saw how deeply he loved me and could finally give that love back freely. It was the happiest day of his life, and one of mine."

So X had spent over a century seeking his purpose and it could have been as simple as love? It made a tremendous amount of sense. He rather hoped it was that way, despite what happened. "That would be."

Rock looked at X and toyed with part of his hair. X looked up at him. His expression was blank again, but there was something... X sensed Rock was struggling against his curse simply in holding this conversation. "Is something wrong, X?"

"I'm not sure... dad..." the word felt foreign and incited a puzzle of emotions. "I'm not really sure what to think of us."

Rock was quiet for a while. X felt uneasy and there was an impulse to get away from this. Then Rock spoke. "I'm not really sure of it myself. I am glad to have you, but it has been confusing for me too."

"Our curses work against each other," X said, feeling oddly that it wasn't himself speaking.

"At least we both understand," Rock said.

"Understand what?"

Rock put his arm around X and squeezed him. "What life is like living under a mental curse. We both know we're not entirely in control and that sometimes you lie when you really need help, because you can't ask."

X had known of the curse, ever since Ciel found it. But this was the first time he actually noticed how the curse was trying to control him. It was trying to make X deny that, to get away so this discussion would end. He nearly did, but realized how hard it was for Rock to try connecting to him this way. There were various thoughts in his head, so he grabbed for one and spoke it. "It's been six months. I've felt so alone."

Rock nodded. "That's the worst of it, I think. Many people are here and we're both alone. But listen... I promise I'll stick by you. I'll do whatever I can to help. Just ask me."

This made X smile. "Okay... thanks."

He looked back at the photo album and pointed to one of the pictures. "There's an interesting story behind this one. Do you want to hear it?"

"Sure." They stayed up in the attic for a long time, looking at the pictures and telling stories.

* * *

%%%

It was cold again, but the snow was fresh and tempting. Zero got his winter cloak, gloves, and boots to go outside. He began piling the snow into one lopsided lump that resembled a ramp more than anything. Once his 'ramp' was a good three feet high, he rolled up a large ball of snow just over his size. He rolled it to the end of the ramp and secured it there.

Next, he built up from the ball, making two cones. Then came the tricky part. He went around the yard picking up odds and ends to place onto his snow creature. A pair of screwdrivers with colorful handles were stuck into the ball part. A bunch of old electrical wires near the recycling piles were placed on top of the cones, with help from his broom. A saw blade was placed under the screwdrivers. And then a bunch of pine needles gathered from around the yard were stuck in all over the cones and ball. There. It was done.

Zero looked it over. On one hand, it was very goofy looking, a misshapen pile of snow with old things decorating it. On the other hand, it had evil eyes, one red and one yellow. It had jagged teeth that were probably poisonous. And it had spikes all over its body. Not to mention what it might be able to do with those wiry extensions on his head. Zero thought of it as a snow monster.

He activated Dusty Blade and faced off, his two and a half foot high child self against the nearly six foot tall snow monster. No, he was his normal self, with his Z-saber, facing off against a seventeen foot high beast. It would try to confuse him with snowy fog, but he wasn't daunted. "Your reign of terror is over, monster."

It would try to attack him with Ice Breath and electrical beams. Not a problem. He leapt out of the breath attack and sliced through the horns. It couldn't make the electric beams anymore, but sparks flew out of the broken horns. And it was howling angrily at him for doing that. It electrified the spikes on its body and tried to bite him with its poisoned teeth.

Attacking up close would no longer work. Zero leapt back and switched weapons, from his blade to... no, not his broom. A spear? No, not with the way he had to handle the not-a-broom. How about a trident? Yeah, that was it. He pulled out his trident. It had only one charge, so hopefully that was enough. He held the trident over his head, then slashed it down and pulled the trigger.

The resulting attack (which he had named Dirt Tornado) was thrown straight at the monster. They collided and the monster was blasted into grimy bits. Bloody bits fell from the sky, turning the battleground into a scene of carnage. Zero hoped that the mess didn't count against his mission score.

The door from the kitchen slid open and shut. Zero was pulled out of his pretend battle by Sonya, who was taking the recyclables out front for pick up. Except the recyclables were covered in snow from the blasting apart of his snow monster. As were the trees, the windows, the lower balconies, and Zero himself. "Um, hi Sonya."

She smiled at him. "Hi Zero. Are you playing Master Teo McDohl and the chimera?"

"I was just playing... hang on." He ran out to get the saw blade and the wires for her recycling. "Who's Master Teo McDohl?"

"A legendary hero from long ago. The regular mermaids tell his legends in song, which they taught me when I was a young fin." She giggled. "As they call the children of the deep."

"I'll help. So what'd he do?"

Sonya gave Zero a light box of plastics. "More like what didn't he do. There are so many stories of him to be told: rhe Castle of Paradox, the Bloody Sword, the Maze of Grief. How he saved the mermaid kingdom from a school of hydras, or the undying devotion of his lady Miranda. He was trained as one of the original child heroes of the Dust Bunny King and led the heroic group in the battle against the Master of Shadows. Wonderful stories, and I love the songs."

"Can you tell me some? Or sing them, if you can."

"Oh, I'd much rather sing them; it's how I learned them. But not right now. I'm sorry, but I have many more things to do today. I am off Thursdays, so if you and X want to hear me sing some of the epics, I can."

"Okay. They're epics?"

"Yes, and that's why I can't sing them right now. Telling one of the shorter songs would take about an hour. And the most famous song, of the Castle Paradox and the Bloody Sword, is the most difficult and takes ten hours to sing the full version."

"That's an awful long time to tell a story."

"That's how the mermaids tell their stories. Oh, there's some old wires in the tree. can you get them?"

"Yeah, leave it to me." He clambered up the icy tree to retrieve them.

While on their treks back and forth, Roll came out. "Ah, there you are Zero. You helping Sonya after playing?"

He nodded. "Yeah. But I'm kinda wet and cold, so I'd rather stay in after I help."

"That's what you get for blasting your snow creature to bits," Sonya teased.

Zero blushed. How much of his imaginary fight had she seen? He thought no one had been watching.

Roll chuckled. "Well, after you're done, I'll help you make some hot cocoa. How does that sound?"

"That sounds good. Can we make some for X too? I think he's reading in his room."

"Of course."

* * *

%%%

Zero came downstairs to the kitchen. "X isn't in his room."

"Odd. We'll keep his warm until he shows up." Roll tapped the rim of the mug and made a transparent red shield appear. Zero gave her a curious look. "Household magic. It's the only set of spells I know."

"Okay." He took a drink of his hot cocoa. Roll had snuck marshmallows in while he'd been looking for X. That was nice.

Then there was child's laughter coming down the stairs. X and Rock showed up a moment later, with an old cardboard box and bits of dust on them. "Hey Roll, you ought to see the old stuff we found."

"Have you two been up in the attic all day? You're covered in dust."

"Pretty much."

"You were cute in pigtails," X said gleefully.

Roll blushed. "Have you been showing him those old photos? Rock."

"You should play with your hair again, you know. I bet you could get a date if you did."

She playfully slapped him. "Quit that!" but she was laughing.

Rock had a weak laugh, but X was laughing hard. It was childlike. Seeing him that way, Zero hardly saw his adult friend there. And I was just out beating up a snowman I made myself, he thought worriedly. Very childlike.

They shouldn't forget themselves, X had said. Zero tried to recall something from his old life. But with Rock and Roll there, everything felt hazy. They never used to eat for need, he recalled, although they did eat for socializing with humans. They used to with Dr. Cain quite a bit, like one time when... and then the details became blurred. He remembered speaking of Iris to them for the first time and how they encouraged him. But what actually was said or done, or what they were eating that time, he couldn't remember.

Maybe they needed to talk between themselves and make certain. Zero pulled the other mug over. "Hey X, want some hot cocoa? We can play checkers too."

"Sure." X got onto the stool beside Zero's.

"Do you know where Blues is?" Rock asked, pulling out another set of photos. "I want to show him this."

She grinned. "Well last I saw, he was going downstairs to the labs." They left.

X started setting up the checker board. "Dad was telling me lots of old stories just now," he said, still acting his apparent age.

"You're acting really strange right now."

"I am not."

"You are."

"Are not."

That wouldn't get them anywhere. Zero gave X a hard look. "We're in the wrong history, remember?"

That snapped him out of it. But it wasn't a welcome reminder. X looked bewildered for a moment, then seemed hurt. "Oh yeah, that..."

Zero looked into his hot cocoa, feeling guilty for hurting him. "Sorry, I didn't think that out too well."

"No, I'm sorry." X put his hands over his face. "I got carried away with the act, I guess."

"I know what you mean. Spend a little time acting like a kid for the others, then you don't think about what you're doing and the act becomes sort of real... you were right, our biggest threat is forgetting who we really are."

"It was more than that." He drank some cocoa while thinking. "I just... I started talking with Rock and we were both uneasy at first. But then he told me stories and we both relaxed and became friendly... I had something there that I always wanted but never could have. Everything else just slipped away."

"This isn't our world. It is nice, and I understand what you're talking about. But we have to get home. I don't think falling out of a tree is going to stop Sigma."

"We can remember that now, but once they get back," X looked at the stairs to the basements.

"I was trying to remember those first days with Iris just now, but couldn't when they were here. Although maybe that was a good thing." He sighed.

A look crossed over X's face, one that usually meant he was thinking deeply about something and making intuitive connections. But whatever it was left him silent and troubled.

Zero nudged him. "X? What is it?"

"You know... how everyone says Shadow Palace is a place of illusions? And how it's really hard to remember what happened there?"

"Yeah. So?"

"And all the memories we have of these children as well as all our adult memories, but then we can't think of the latter unless we're alone like this?"

"What are you getting to? I don't see how our adult memories connect to Shadow Palace."

"They say the Palace gave us false memories. So what if the memories of the Maverick Hunters are actually false and we are just very confused kids?" X was looking into his cocoa, seemingly lost, maybe even scared.

There was a negative answer on the tip of Zero's tongue, but also a sudden shot of doubt. He could remember his conversations with Cain and X now, vividly. But he had also vividly seen the battle with the snow monster, which he knew he was just pretending. It made him dizzy. "Could that happen?"

"You were saying just this morning you wished you were an adult, supposedly again, so that you wouldn't be so weak. Trauma victims have been known to make up their past to hide from it, and Shadow Palace would give us the means to make up a very elaborate past."

"We could just be lying? No, we have the same memories... but we were stuck there together. Something isn't real, but which?" They were quiet for a couple of minutes. Zero tried to ravel this mystery out, tried to figure out which string of memories was the real one. With increasing alarm, he noticed that both sets seemed equally real. Just to bother him more, the dizziness became physical and painful.

Then X seemed to settle his own debate. "No, no... Both sets of memories are real and are true. But we are the adults, not the children."

"Both are real?"

"Look, we know we aren't acting like ourselves. Your temper has gotten shorter and we know your biting isn't normal. And I've acquired all these fears and paranoias, which aren't mine, and my giddiness just a bit ago... Since we feel that's not how we really are, we must be the adults, just influenced by the child bodies." X shook his head. "And if it's this bad for us, it must be horrible on the actual children, stuck in our bodies. I wonder how they're doing with getting into contact with us."

"I don't get it... that makes my head hurt."

"It's not that bad. It is confusing, I know, but we can manage."

Zero put his arms on the counter and lay his head down. "No really... I have a splitting headache now."

Roll came up from downstairs. "I hope they have no more reasons to interrupt me. Are you boys done with your cocoa?"

"Zero has a bad headache," X told her. "I don't know why."

"You poor dear." Roll placed her fingers gently over Zero's eyes and cast a spell. "That should help after you take a nap. Would you help him upstairs, X?"

"Sure." X took Zero's hand and walked with him upstairs.


	9. Tests of Intelligence

September 6, XX54  
Light residence, Monsteropolis

Zero was up in the third floor hallway, trying to keep out of the way. He was shadow dueling with his broom. Sure, he had a blade to train with, but didn't want to cause much damage. Even a training blade could crack or break something. So he worked with the broom, even though it was balanced wrong for blade practice.

He lifted the broom up for a downswing and was surprised to find strong resistance. Looking up, he saw that Blues had caught hold of the handle. "Careful there, short stuff. You might knock something off the wall."

Zero felt embarrassed. He hadn't heard Blues come up from behind at all. "Sorry, I was just..."

"Practicing for a sword fight?"

"Yeah. Hey, did you find out about the Dust Bunny King yet?"

Blues gave him a playful smile. "Are you ready for that?"

"Of course!"

"Well, all right then. Come with me. Just don't tell Roll, okay?" He put his finger to his lips. "Otherwise she'll tear my head off. Figuratively, of course, but sometimes that's much worse."

Ska jingled like he was laughing, then followed Blues into a room that had been shut this whole time. Zero did too and immediately recognized this as a practice area. There was a mat with a large circle covering the floor. There were a number of cabinets and a wall of mirrors. There were a few holographic generators on the ceiling. For being in a private residence, it was really good.

Blues opened one of the cabinets, then threw Zero a foam sword. It was weighted precisely to an average rune blade, although the one Zero got was only of short sword length. But it made him grin. He loved practice.

It seemed Blues felt the same way. "Here, I'll play with you a bit, since you seem of mind to."

"Sure." They faced off for a practice duel.

Zero thought he would surprise Blues with his battle skills, only to discover that he had no battle skills. Over a century of battle had taught Zero much, but now all that knowledge was gone without a trace. He was left fighting only with his raw talent. And while that was impressive enough, Blues was catching everything Zero threw at him. He stayed on the defensive and not a single one of Zero's strikes got through. The exercise grew more and more frustrating until Zero lost his temper and bit Blues' arm.

Yet Blues only chuckled. "You don't need any weapons, kid. Not with a bite like that." He checked his arm over. "Look, you even dented my armor. That's impressive. You have teeth of ceramic titanium or something?"

"Sorry," Zero apologized for the second time today. "I wasn't thinking..."

"That's the problem with having a temper. You should count in your head. Start at one hundred and go backwards."

"Backwards?"

"It'll make you think."

He looked down. "I'm not good at anything, except biting people."

Blues knelt down so he was closer to Zero's eye level. "Now that's not true. You were pretty good against me."

"But I couldn't hit you."

"I had to try to block you. Not many people can make me do that."

"You're a cocky bastard."

"Heh. Don't let Roll hear you talk like that, even if I am one. But I'm being honest when I say I think you have real talent here. You just need some work, and for that, here you go." He handed Zero a piece of paper.

Zero looked it over. The directions seemed odd to gain sword fighting lessons. Like he needed to burn a certain type of candle. "This is how I call the Dust Bunny King?"

"Yes, but I will warn you, the guy I talked to said this won't guarantee that he'll come right away. This fairy king has twelve blades and usually trains multiple children, so if he's with one of them, he won't come. And he thought that it was very strange that you got challenged in Shadow Palace. But give this a try, at least three times. If not, get back with me and we'll figure another way. And take special note of this point. You are only to call him when you are alone."

Zero nodded. "Okay, I see."

"I want to see you get better by the time I get back, you hear?"

"Back? Where are you going?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. Someplace. I've got some ideas, just haven't decided where."

"Do you have to go?"

"Afraid so, Zero. I've got some promises to keep and I was never able to stick to one place for very long. I'll be back sometime. Maybe by Christmas, or when I find something. Or when Ska gets tired of the cold."

Ska made some comment to that.

Zero frowned. "If you have to. But just you wait; I'll beat you when you get back."

"I'd like to see that happen."

"I will!"

Blues pointed between Zero's eyes. "Then you have a lot of ground to cover."

* * *

 

September 7

Roll came into the dining room as X and Zero were eating cereal for breakfast. "I need you boys to be ready to go shortly. We have a lot to do today."

"Go?" X asked. "Where are we going?"

"You two need to go to the school's testing center so you can start school. They usually don't test this late, but I managed to make an appointment."

"Testing center?"

"We have to go to school?" Zero asked, dropping his spoon in his bowl.

She nodded, quickly wiping off the bit of milk he'd spilled. "Certainly. All the other three year old reploids will be starting this year. It's just a few days away."

Half an hour later, they arrived at the Monsteropolis School District Headquarters. "So this is like primary school?" Zero whispered to X. "We only had college level education for reploids, and that was optional."

"It looks like we have to do this," X whispered back. He looked ahead at someone Roll had greeted. "Whoa, hey, isn't that...?" the name slipped from him.

"Yeah, but..." Zero couldn't think of it either.

The reploid they were talking about was a big guy, close on eight feet tall and four feet wide. He had ultra-heavy armor that looked like copper. His helmet nearly covered his entire face, and although the armor was fierce looking, the eyes seemed quite kind. He smiled down at them. "So this would be X and Zero Light, right? You boys cousins?"

"Uh..." Zero felt puzzled to hear 'Light' attached to his name.

"No," Roll said. "X is my nephew, and Zero's been adopted into the family."

"That's fine. I'll keep a good eye on them."

"Thanks." She turned to them. "I'm going to run a few errands while you're taking the tests. I'll be back in an hour to pick you up okay?"

"Okay," X said.

"You boys don't need to worry," the man said as Roll left. "My name's Steel Massimo; I'm one of the reploid branch teachers."

"You're going to be our teacher?" Zero asked, eyes wide. This guy seemed more like he should be on the front lines of the Snow Patrol. Not teaching elementary school.

He chuckled. "No, not this year. I teach sixth grade. But I might be seeing you later. Come on back here and we'll get you started on the STERE."

"What sort of test is this?" X asked as they walked down a hall.

"Standardized Test for Elementary Reploid Education," Massimo translated. "Now, can you two read?"

"Yes, both of us."

Zero laughed. "X will read anything you give him."

"Excellent. Then you two shouldn't have any trouble. You need fifty points to enter first grade, but readers can make that easily. Here we are." He led them into a quiet room with twelve separate testing spaces. "The format is simple. Use the touch screen to answer most questions. Some questions may want you to give spoken answers, but it will tell you when that's needed. You'll probably have a few writing exercises. The keyboard is down here and the light pen is in this slot. Try it out and if you still have questions, raise your hand to get me."

X sat down at one computer. Zero was put at another. He put on a set of headphones. "Welcome to the STERE system," a nice female voice said. "Please state your full name."

"Zero... Light."

It ran a quick check on his eyes for identification. "Good morning Zero Light. Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes."

"All right. Your first problem is to identify the object that does not belong in a series of pictures. Touch the object that does not belong."

The first picture was a set of identical boxes, one a different color. This was going to be mind-numbingly dull, Zero thought, as he touched the different colored one. He wondered if it was a set series of questions or if it was altered to the child's abilities.

Five minutes in, he was sure it was customized to each child's ability. The learning curve was steep. As long as he answered promptly and accurately, the test went immediately to a harder problem. But as soon as he began faltering, hesitating, or thinking too long, it shifted to another subject.

Half an hour in. Zero was trying to do arithmetic. This was puzzling. Reploids were natural calculators, being evolved from robots, which were evolved from computers, which were evolved from calculators. He used to be able to do complex calculus equations in a snap, all in his head. Now he was having trouble managing 107 - 82 =?

Forty-five minutes in. Zero was trying to spell. Forming letters with the light pen had been no trouble. But spelling... gah! The word 'pieces' was driving him crazy. The woman's voice repeated the word patiently.

Over an hour in. Zero was following a drawing puzzle. It gave him a fragment of a picture along with where to put it. Then he had to copy the fragment onto a grid. This wasn't so bad. He copied the last of his squares and came up with a picture of an octopus.

The STERE system paused for a moment. "You have completed this year's test session, Zero Light. You will start school on September 10. Your specific score will be given to you that day. Have a good school year." The screen noted, 'Time elapsed: 76 minutes.'

He took off the headphones and looked up at Steel Massimo. "I'm done."

"Good job. Don't see many first timers taking over an hour."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Sure is. That means the system had to find extra difficult problems for you to solve. But I think your friend is going to take even longer."

"You think?" Zero looked over to where X was still testing. He was concentrating on the screen, apparently moving something around the touch screen. Zero noted that he couldn't tell what was on X's screen.

"Yeah. The boy's got a typing speed to match Cinnamon's. And for him to be typing up that much, he had to be really smart."

"He is," Zero said. Something came into his mind, so he added, "He taught me."

Actually, X took over three hours to test. "That was quite a test," he said to Zero as they went to the mall.

"Were you cheating or something?" Zero asked. "Because I felt handicapped."

"I did too sometimes. But sometimes... I don't know. It was like I was boosted."

"Boosted?"

"Yeah, like I was answering something correctly that I shouldn't know. Like it asked when the Earth Union first met and where. I never heard of any EU, but I seemed to know exactly when and where."

"When did you get that question?"

"During the historical section. Why?"

"I didn't have a historical section," Zero said, feeling embarrassed. "I had trouble with math and got stuck on spelling pieces."

"Oh really? Well..." he looked at his hands. "Sorry..."

* * *

 

September 7  
Cain residence, Monsteropolis

Zeta brought over a bowl of hot tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. "Here you are dear."

Sigma smiled, trying to maintain a polite facade. "Thanks mom."

"No problem." She went back and brought in her own soup and sandwich. "I'm so sorry I've been busy after being gone so long. Route 291 got shut down, and by the time we got through, I had mounds of office work to catch up on and people to apologize to. But things should settle down for now."

"That's fine." Actually, he'd been glad she was so busy. It made it easier for him to avoid her. Today was her day off and he'd nearly slipped by her. But then she offered to make him lunch. He ought to try being friendly, so they didn't pester him with worry any more. That meant conversing with a reploid he wouldn't hesitate to kill back home. "What were you gone for this time?"

"I can tell you now. It was a world population seminar where we discussed the issue of depopulation. The current death rate far exceeds the birth rate in nearly every region. We're not too deep in trouble yet, but it's reaching crisis levels. We're trying to find ways to encourage family growth, even though everyone's nervous about having children now."

"Because the winter doesn't end?"

Zeta nodded. "Right. Even within these safe cities, many couples are holding off on having children until we know a way to end winter. The reploid couples too, which is a shame. It's already fairly expensive for our race to have children. Especially when it's a kid like you." She winked.

Well if you hadn't married a human, Sigma wanted to say. But he was not in a position to express his true thoughts. "I guess. Was it really expensive to build me?"

"On the high side, but not the highest. No, the most expensive reploid infant I ever built for... oh, he was so adorable, one of the cutest I've ever seen. But there were just problems and problems... the mother didn't even make it through the pregnancy, but we managed to rescue the child. So between rescue, life support, modifications, and he was specialized in the first place, that child wound up close to a million zenny. You weren't nearly that high. Five hundred thousand from start to finish."

"I see."

"It was more complicated than anything to get you and Roger. We went ahead and did the protein-electrical code translation, but that took three years for each of you. It's not really a true 50-50 split, more like 60-40." Sigma half-listened, not really interested in how this world had children unnaturally. But he did pay attention when she said, "Do you want to go anywhere special while we're out today?"

"Um, I was going to meet up with my friends after lunch. We had something we were going to do." Dynamo had called him last night, saying if he wanted in, he'd better come today.

"All right. But be back by four o'clock, okay? And dress warmly if you're going to be outside."

"I will." He finished his lunch and got away quickly.

Fifteen minutes later, he was at the playground where Lumine and his gang hung out. Lumine was sulking on the merry-go-round; no one went near him. Vile and Dynamo were chatting on the play set's stairs. Dynamo smirked at him. "So, what do you think, brat?"

"I'll join your group, urchin."

"Wise choice. Come with us." He and Vile led Sigma down several blocks. The skyscrapers around here weren't quite as nice as Sigma's apartment building. These were made strictly by the books, big and blocky in neutral blue and gray tones.

"You're lucky," Vile said. "King Wily is in town today."

"King Wily?" That name sounded absolutely absurd. And it was supposed to be Dr. Wily.

"One of our uncles," Dynamo said. "And one of the top commanders of Master Wily's former army. He's really awesome."

"He might be Dynamo's dad," Vile said quietly as they came in one of the buildings. "Or mine. But nobody will tell us who our fathers are, just that they're in the Wily clan."

"Doesn't matter who is, or if we're half-brothers or just cousins. We belong to a fine clan of reploids. Unlike you, with a human for a father."

Sigma gave Dynamo a harsh look. He could tell he'd have to prove himself to everyone else in this group, despite the star incident. "Well in case you forgot, Wily himself was a human."

Dynamo shrugged it off. "He died to let reploids rule the world. Simple as that."

Vile glanced around, then whispered, "Just don't **ever** tell one of the first gen Wily group that. Most of them still worship their father and will knock your head off without thinking twice."

They entered a suite on the fourth floor. There were a number of reploids in here, including, Sigma was surprised to see, an adult Dr. Gate and some of his group. Gate was as nerdy as ever, but his two children were actual kids. Infinity Mijinion was absorbed in some book. Shield Sheldon was quietly drawing in a notebook. Sheldon looked up and seemed surprised. "Sigma? What are you doing here?"

Gate put his hand on one of Sheldon's shells. "Hush." Then he looked at the three of them. "Sigma Cain... an odd guest for you two to bring here."

"He's gonna be the kids' new leader," Vile said. "He busted Lumine's nose."

"And he's been questioning the wisdom of his parents getting together," Dynamo said. "But that was only after the star hit you, right?"

Sigma nodded. "Yeah, that."

An unfamiliar reploid spoke to Dynamo, "So you weren't just exaggerating again."

"I don't exaggerate," Dynamo insisted. "Sigma, this is King."

King was a fairly impressive warrior. Although not as impressive as I was, he thought. "Hello."

He pulled out a piece of cut paper. It made Sigma think of a lace doily, only black. What was he carrying that around for? King placed the black paper over Sigma's left eye. "I'd rather check, myself." Once the paper made contact with his skin, his eye tingled. Sigma looked at King and could see, in a polished section of his helmet, a black star form over that eye.

Gate leaned forward, now interested. "That's a curious sign. I can't think of the meaning right off."

"It's a rare sign," King said. "Domino told me that the three stars at solstice brought three special blessings to three special children. Two would become the bane of our existence. But the third had the potential to bring us glory once again."

Sigma felt sharp anger, but kept it covered as best he could. "You know Ikari Domino? Well tell him that I have to talk to him about this mess he got me in, and where those other two are. He'd better have a good explanation for this too."

Gate smiled. "Yes, Ikari's been very difficult to work with. One would think Master Wily could afford a less riddling attendant."

"How do you know Master Domino?" Dynamo asked, now jealous of Sigma. "There's no way you could have met him."

"He promised me one thing and gave me another." Sigma paused, puzzled at his statement. Domino had not promised him anything; he'd just thrown him into this world. "I have to speak with him soon."

"Quiet now," King said. "Sigma, Domino will come to speak with you again, but on his own schedule. That's simply the way he works, but he has told me he will speak to you. However, he also told me that what he had to say was between the two of you and no one else. As for the other two star-marked children, don't worry. We know where they are and we're working on suppressing them. And Vile, Dynamo... and you two..."

Sheldon looked up curiously. Infinity glanced up from his book.

"Sigma is a special child, marked by destiny, so your group will take him as a leader. Make sure Lumine agrees to this. You will have to teach Sigma the right way of things, as he's been living under delusions until now. With that settled, we need to initiate your two new members, Sigma and Sheldon."

* * *

 

September 7  
Light residence

Zero peered in the room. Rock was there; he had a number of papers strewn across his bed as he worked on a project on his computer. Zero knocked on the door. "Hey, Rock?"

"Hmm?" he looked up. "What is it, Zero?"

"Do you have, um..." he checked his paper, "two candles scented of a type of swamp tree or flower?"

"I think so." He put his computer aside and went to a trunk by the wall. "I have to keep a lot of candles around for my spell work. Is this on the Dust Bunny King?"

He nodded as he came in to peek in the trunk. There were dozens of small candles in there. "Yeah. I was going to use your practice room to call him. But I have to be alone for it to work."

"I don't really want to leave you on your own with open flames, even just candles. I'll come along to help you set up, just to be sure."

"Okay."

"Let's see..." Rock pulled out a tray of twelve candles. "We've got Mindbane Ivy, but I'm not lighting that one around a child. Here's a marsh scented candle, but it really does smell like rotting vegetation."

Zero made a face. "Ew."

"I have three spells that need it. These should work for you: Swamp Lily Blossom."

He took the two pale peach candles. "Thanks."

"Anything else special you need?"

"I don't think so. You check it." He handed the paper over.

The wizard reploid looked over the paper critically. "I think you're okay, although you might need my help in setting up. Let's go up and make sure the area's clear."

"It was the other day when Blues and I were in there." He followed Rock upstairs.

Rock aligned the candles to the proper direction and checked the aura of the room. Then he led Zero to between the two candles before lighting them. "Here's your starting position. You need to take five steps that way, straight."

He looked ahead and found a point to walk to. "All right."

"Turn around and follow the calling instructions. The candles should be okay, but make sure you don't knock them over. And don't forget to put them out once you're done. I'm going to leave this on the table here." He put down a small pager. "Use it to call me if something goes wrong."

"Okay. Thanks again."

"Good luck." Rock left.

Zero checked his point, then walked straight out five paces. He turned and activated Dusty Blade. "Those of the fairy realm, hear my call. I wish to become a guardian by the weapon in my hands. Would the master please come speak to me?"

The two candles shot up beams of light, which formed into a light green arch. The space between turned dark green, and then an orange-brown ball of light came out. This was the fairy, but unlike Ska, he had no visible body. The will'o'wisp floated down to Zero, moving rather like a jellyfish did underwater. "Who are you, with my blade?"

"My name is Zero."

"You seem awfully small."

He frowned and insisted, "I'm three years old. I am!"

"I believe you. Still." He floated closer to his face. He really seemed to be nothing more than glowing dust motes. "I don't recognize you. And you're too young to even be checked out. Just by a hair, true, but you shouldn't be handling my blade."

"But you challenged me."

"Did I?" The Dust Bunny King drifted around Zero. "Nope. Don't recognize you."

"But I remember you, sort of. It was in Shadow Palace. You appeared like that and called me a scurvy runt. Then you appeared like a rabbit reploid and I asked if you were the Easter Bunny. Then you got mad and challenged me to a duel, and I beat you with my broom. At least, I think it happened that way."

"That's what you saw? May I see that blade?"

"I suppose, since you only lend blades to your students." Zero handed it over.

"You say Shadow Palace?"

"Yes, that's where we were."

"We... who else?"

"My best friend X."

"There have been rumors around the fairy realm, of two young reploids who were in Shadow Palace, escaping Ikari Tower, and wound up spending twenty days in the snowfields. So that is true?"

"Yeah. They did something terrible to X, and were going to do much worse." What was that? But just the thought of it made Zero feel uncomfortably shy.

"From that story alone, I would say you must have the qualities I generally look for in my young champions. But I would never challenge a child in Shadow Palace. I never go there in the first place."

"What? So is that really one of yours?"

"Oh, it is one of my blades. About fifty years ago, when I first started as the Dust Bunny King..."

"Started?"

"Yes, I'm the eighty-first Dust Bunny King, also known as Gage. Anyhow, when I acquired the title and job, I had some trouble with a band of shadow elves. Now shadow elves are nasty beings. They're cyber elves that have gone very very wrong. I managed to defeat them, but one of the group stole this blade and got away. It's been missing ever since. So what you fought was a shadow elf mimic."

"I see."

"It's an unusual circumstance. I think normal protocol would have me challenge you personally. However, given that you defeated the mimic who bested me, we'll let you slide."

"Good, so you'll still train me? I want to protect X." Clenching his fist, he felt an intense determination behind those words. It was odd and made him question who he really was again.

But the fairy's words snapped him out of that confusion before it got too bad. "I admire your honor, but I'm still not certain. I usually don't start training reploids until they turn four, preferably five. And I want to check over this blade and make sure the mimic didn't leave anything wicked on it."

"Oh..."

"I'll return the blade to you tomorrow. We'll give this a try. I guess start with once a week, like... hmmm... Sundays at two o'clock pm. Will that work for you?"

"I'll have to talk to my guardians, but sure."

"Okay, Zero. I'll return tomorrow at two to begin your training. Goodbye for today."

"Goodbye Gage."


	10. Maple Street Elementary School

September 10, XX54  
Light residence

It was their first day of elementary school, ever. Zero was in his room putting on his uniform. They weren't allowed to wear armor to school, probably to discourage fights. Instead, he had a yellow polo shirt with MSES on the left side of his chest, with a brown jacket over that. The brown jacket had a yellow edging and a school badge. The square badge for Maple Street School was a maple tree with red leaves on a yellow background. Then he had brown pants and black shoes with white socks. Roll had thought it looked cute on him.

He also put on a name tag with a safety pin. It was something done for reploids entering first grade and humans entering kindergarten. Then he picked up his backpack with a few basics inside and went downstairs.

Roll was fussing with X's hair. Zero had done his own hair earlier and tied it back with a brown hair tie, to go with the uniform. "It's fine," X insisted, trying to leave his hair the way it was.

"Just like your father," she replied with a smile. "I guess it's decent. Here's your lunches. Rock, aren't you going with them?"

Rock came out of the office. "Yeah, I'm ready. You two get your winter cloaks on." Rock was wearing a uniform too. But as he was a Guardian, it was made up of red and yellow armor with several identifying badges.

Roll handed Rock his lunch. "You boys have a good day at school. Don't worry too much; I'm sure you both will do fine."

They exchanged goodbyes and left with Rock. He was showing them the way to their school, as they were close enough to walk. "What's school like?" X asked him. "What are we going to do there?"

"I don't know myself. When I 'awoke' as the first reploid, I was an adult in mind and body already. My emotions still had to grow up, but my dad was watching me every step of the way. But now there's many reploid children, and most of their parents don't even know how they're built in scientific terms. So we send you to school to make sure you know what you're supposed to."

"Are we going to be in the same class?" Zero asked. "I don't really want to leave X alone."

"I don't want to leave you alone either. It's kinda scary."

Rock touched X's shoulder. "You don't have to worry. The schools are among the most secure buildings in the city. As for your question, Zero, there's only one class per grade for reploids. Even though Maple Street is the only school for reploids here, there aren't that many children around. At least, compared to the humans."

"So you don't know anything about what school will be?" X asked now.

Rock shrugged. "I know some things. Like at the end of each school year, you'll retake the STERE to see if you pass. There are eight grades; you need 500 points to enter second grade, 1000 to enter third, and so on."

"So you need 4000 points to pass school entirely," X reasoned.

"Not quite. You need 3500 points and you must be ten years old. Then you can join the rites to become an adult."

"We become adults through magic rites?"

He nodded. "Yes, but you're not old enough to hear of the specifics yet. When you turn nine, they'll teach you that too."

"So eighth grade must be optional, if you have enough points, but aren't ten yet."

"That's right."

"How far does the STERE score go?"

"The perfect score? Well, you don't hear of that happening often. I think it's 5000 points. They make a big fuss every year of the ones who make 4500 or more."

"But what if people cheat on it?" Zero asked.

"You can't cheat the STERE. At least, so I've heard. It's a dynamic test. The questions are randomized, the difficulty is based on how quickly and accurately the child answers; not even the teachers will know what will be on a specific STERE session. They test in a special room and they don't allow more than six students per supervisor... even if you can cheat STERE, it would be very difficult and not really worth it."

"Because by the point you can do that," X thought aloud, "you wouldn't really need schooling anyhow."

They stopped at a crosswalk of a busy intersection. A trio of reploid children came across to their corner, two boys and one girl. The girl was wearing a name tag too, but stuck close to one of the boys. The other boy grinned on seeing them. "Hi Master Rock!"

Rock nodded to him. "Hello Ash. It's been some time since I've seen you."

"Told you I knew him," Ash told the other boy.

He had wide eyes. "Really, so you're really the hero? I know Roll, but you're like never around. I have six of your cards in my Battlefield deck."

"That's impressive. So Ash, how's your father doing? I haven't heard from Oregon in a while."

"He's been stationed somewhere, but of course I can't know where. He does write me a lot and tries to call every Saturday."

The light changed, so they crossed the street. "That's good, at least you hear from him."

"I know. Oh, and this is my best friend Sandy, like I was telling you about. And this is his little sister Iris."

Iris smiled. "Hi."

Zero felt stunned for a second on hearing this was Iris. But his memories stayed elusive. Thank goodness, he thought. If she was wearing that name tag too, she was probably going to be in their class. So that meant Sandy was probably Colonel. And was Ash here really General? Zero couldn't be sure. He'd never seen the pair out of military armor back home; at least, no time he could think of now. Seeing them all in school uniform was odd.

And the trio wasn't quite the same. Sandy was the sort of kid one called a beanpole, almost the height of an adult, but skinny. He had short brown hair. Ash, on the other hand, was more of a tank, short and stocky. He had stringy blond hair. Iris was much of what one expected of a little girl, petite with long brown hair. Except, to Zero's annoyance, she was taller than him and the same size as X. She wasn't wearing a beret, which probably wasn't allowed in the school dress code. Instead, she was wearing a hair clip with her namesake flower in silk.

Rock nodded to them. "Good to meet you both. This is my son X and his best friend Zero."

X seemed stalled for words. Zero tried to smile, but felt really nervous. "Um, hi."

"You two are going to school?" Sandy asked. "You seem kinda little."

Iris tapped her brother. "Hey, don't be mean."

"We are going to school," Zero insisted.

Rock tapped the boy's shoulder. "Ash, since you two have to be looking out for Iris anyways, would you mind helping X and Zero out? It would be a big help."

"Sure, no problem," Ash answered.

* * *

 

September 10  
Cain residence

Sigma stirred his breakfast cereal around. He had to go to school today. How demeaning. He wished he could escape this body and find a more suitable vessel. As a virus, he should be able to do that. But for one reason or another, he was stuck. This world was so annoying.

For a while, he looked forward to school as a means to escape his family. It'd be for a few hours nearly every day. He would know everything already, so he could slack off in class and work on his plans to overthrow this world. When he grew up, that is. He was five years old physically. According to his research, he had another five years to go, and then a sort of adolescence for three years. Then he would be considered a legal adult.

But this morning, he noticed Roger was wearing the same Maple Street uniform that he was. Roger was fifteen and had three or six more years of childhood/adolescence to go. At that age, reploids were expected to be in their life careers. Roger still had school to finish, and it seemed they were going to the same one.

Sigma finished getting ready and left quickly, trying to get ahead of Roger. But as he came onto the sidewalk, he realized he wasn't entirely sure of where he was going. He forced the body to recall the directions. It started him slowly to the west.

Roger caught up with him easily. "How're you feeling about starting school again, huh?"

Was he going to have to put up with this every morning? "Okay, I guess. It's just school."

"Just school? Come on, I know you love school. And we do have to hurry now, to get to the bus stop on time."

Sigma walked faster along with Roger. He tried to seem excited. "I know, it'll be fun, but..."

He gave a sly smile. "Ah, I know your problem. You're worried about Baba Ferham, the infamous third grade teacher."

Baba... Ferham? The name was familiar, from his world. He didn't quite remember right now, but seemed to think it was odd she was a teacher. "Sort of."

"Well cross your fingers and hope you broke 1500. Then you could skip to fourth and get that cutie that joined last year. What's her name? I think Cinnamon Gaudile."

That was familiar too, but less then Ferham. "That'd be nice."

They came up to the bus stop, where a large group of kids had gathered, both reploid and human. The Gates were here too. Shield Sheldon was standing off on his own. Ground Scaravich, Metal Shark Player, and Rainy Turtloid were chatting with each other. Infinity Mijinion was sitting on the bench reading. Dr. Gate was speaking to Vile while holding onto Blizzard Wolfang, who seemed to be an infant. Yammark... he wasn't really a commander yet... was wearing a nametag and skipping around the group, chanting, "I'm going to school, I'm going to school."

Roger leaned over. "The Gate clan has grown again. I always wondered why he has so many kids, but he's not married."

"He made them all from scratch," Sigma said.

Roger nodded. "Oh yeah, that makes sense. Well, more sense then some other things I've heard. Kevin was claiming that Gate kidnaps them and experiments with their DNA."

Sheldon spotted them and smiled. "Hi Sigma! Where've you been all summer? I've hardly seen you around."

"He's been moping," Roger teased.

"I have not," Sigma insisted. Roger shrugged and went to speak to one of his friends. "And you saw me..."

"Shh," Sheldon said hastily. Then he glanced around. "And did that star really hit you?"

Oh yeah, the RFF was a secret. How could he forget something so simple? "It did, really hard."

"That must have been bad. But at least you're okay now."

"Of course," Gate said, drifting over to them. "We wouldn't want to lose our dear little friend Sigma, would we?" He smiled.

He didn't trust that smile. "I'll be fine."

"Awwooooofff," Wolfang remarked.

"Wolfang thinks he's a real wolfoid," Sheldon commented. "But he's only five months old, so it's okay."

Gate tapped his youngest son's nose. "It would be better if he were trying to talk."

Wolfang barked.

Gate shook his head. "Well, have a good school year, Sheldon. Listen to your older brothers now. If you keep your ears and eyes open, you'll learn the truth in short time."

"Okay dad." He watched as Gate went to talk to Infinity. "Yeah, I'd listen to them if they weren't so mean," he muttered.

"They are," Sigma spoke softly, then wondered why he did. He only knew Gate back home; he'd hardly spoken to his eight reploids.

Sheldon looked around, checking where his brothers were. Then he said, "Sigma, I have to talk to you. Something secret... it's bad, but I have to tell someone."

Maybe these two were friends. "What is it, Sheldon?"

The bus arrived. "Later. If we get left alone at recess. Hopefully."

Might as well, Sigma thought. "Okay. At recess."

* * *

 

September 10  
Maple Street School building

Rock hugged X as they got to the school. "I'll be home about the same time as you. So I'll see you then."

"O-okay," X said, the first thing he had said since meeting up with Ash, Sandy, and Iris.

Rock shook hands with Zero, as he wouldn't stand being hugged in public. They exchanged goodbyes and Rock went to work. Ash and Sandy lead them into the gymnasium. The human kids were going straight to class; there were a lot of them. The reploid kids were gathering in the gym first.

"You three wait here a minute," Ash said. "We have to get our STERE scores and grade assignment."

The two of them went up to a table and got their scores from Douglas. X and Zero checked with each other silently, but it did appear that the Hunter engineer was here working for the elementary school. Nearby in another odd scene, Cinnamon and Layer were speaking merrily to each other, both adults and both apparently teachers. And not just the teachers. Many kids were familiar from their home world. Like just a few feet away, kids who appeared to be Spark Mandrill and Overdrive Ostrich were arguing over something. It was eerie.

X stepped closer to Zero and whispered, "These kids, we know all these kids... and..."

"We have to think of them as different people," Zero whispered back, which had been his primary view on Iris so far. But then he noticed X was tensing up, like he was falling into another panic attack. Maybe it was like his temper here; maybe X couldn't help being so afraid. "X, you gonna be okay?"

X turned around to face the wall. "Too many people here," he said. "It's too noisy."

"It'll be okay," Iris said. "My brother and cousin can keep the bad kids away."

Then there was a cheerful whoop from Sandy. "All right! I got into eighth grade with you."

Iris smiled. "That's great."

"How do you know I got into eighth?" Ash challenged.

"No duh, you were in seventh last year."

"All right, so I've got 4012. What about you?"

Sandy checked his paper as they stopped by the younger ones. "Um... 3501."

"Geez, you cut that one fine. Hey X, what's up? You look kinda pale."

X didn't say anything immediately, so Iris said, "He's a little scared."

"It's mostly the noise," Zero said.

"It'll be okay," Sandy said. "Besides, you get the absolute nicest person in the world for your teacher, Miss Alia. She can help with anything. We get... um, who are we getting this year?"

Ash shrugged. "I dunno. But Alia is very nice. Sandy's just had a crush on her since he was your age."

Sandy turned bright pink. "I do not have a crush on her!"

Iris giggled. "Yes you do."

Ash grinned. "Come on, we'll introduce you to her."

To help X, they walked around most of the crowd. Alia was sitting in a chair talking to older students. It seemed many kids were fond of her. Sandy smiled at her, then tried to not smile too much and wound up with a goofy look on his face. "Hi Miss Alia."

She smiled warmly at them. "Hello again, Sandy, Ash. It's so good to see you again. How did you boys manage this year?"

"We both get into eighth grade, although he gets in by only one point."

Sandy gave Ash a sharp look.

"Very good, both of you. Who've you got with you now?"

"My little sister, Iris. She should do really well."

Iris smiled and shook hands with Alia. "Hello."

"And this is X and Zero; we're helping them out too. But X is nervous."

"You'll be fine." Alia looked him over, as if gauging just how nervous he was. "We can go into the office here, if it'll help. They won't be starting for another five minutes."

X tugged at his hair. "Um, okay."

They went into the gym teacher's office. With the door partly shut, it was a great deal quieter in here. Alia tried speaking to X as she probably did every first day with a nervous youngster. Zero could tell it wasn't working. He tried to think of something that might and remembered how long X had taken on the test, which was supposedly a good sign. He tapped Alia's arm. "Hey, that STERE test thing said we would get our scores today too."

"I'll pass those out in class, although I can check if you really want to know now."

"Okay. But X probably has a much better score than I do."

"You never know." Alia brought a file out of her handbag and searched for her class list. "Let's see... ah, Iris Greensward, with 137."

"Is that good?" Iris asked.

"Any first grade score over a hundred is good," Ash said. "You won't have any problems with this year."

Alia nodded. "That's usually how it goes. I found Zero Light, with 121."

"Really? I thought I was doing kinda bad, especially with spelling."

"Everyone has their weaknesses. Hmmm... This is very strange. You're not on my roster, X."

X was startled. "What? We're going to be in different classes?"

Feeling panicked too, Zero added, "But we can't be in different classes."

"It won't be for long, just a few hours every day," Alia said. But she was obviously puzzled as to how to handle this situation as well.

"And we all have the same lunch and recess schedule," Ash said. "Me and Sandy haven't been in the same grade for two years now, and it's been okay."

"But we've never really been apart," X said, pulling his arms in close to his chest. "Except for very bad times."

Sandy told Ash, "Hey, let's go find out what class X is supposed to be in."

"Right, you two go do that," Alia requested.

Iris watched them go, but decided she wanted to stay with X and help that way.

"There's nothing wrong with being nervous," Alia told X. "Lots of kids get nervous when they have to go to school for the first time and be away from home."

X mumbled something. When Alia didn't respond, he repeated, "We never had a home."

"But you came with your dad," Iris said.

"We only met him a month ago. Before that, we lived in Ikari Tower."

"Oh my," Iris said softly.

Alia tried putting her hand on his shoulder. "I see. You two must have been through a lot."

"Can't he stay with our class?" Zero asked, trying not to whine and probably doing a bad job of it.

"I can see why it would be a good idea to keep you two together. But I'm afraid our class will bore X greatly. You should be with your proper learning group."

Ash and Sandy came back in. "Miss Alia, this is so weird, but true. He's going to be with us."

"In eighth grade?" she asked, not sure if this was possible.

Ash handed her X's score sheet. "It's really amazing. You got 4350, which is even more than smarty-pants Infinity has, and this is his second year of eighth grade."

Alia looked it over, then handed the sheet to X. "Who taught you this well, in Ikari Tower?"

X understood the scoring graphs in a glance, and also understood that a normal child his age probably couldn't. "I taught myself, and Zero. I read lots of books."

The teacher thought on this. "You know magic... can you tell me about the elementals?"

"That's easy. Spells seem very complex and random, but there is natural logic to their behaviors. Aura, the base of magic, is formed off emotions, memories, and thoughts. There are 49 elemental types of aura, split into the Seven Rings and Seven Arts. The Seven Rings are White, Black, Warlock, Sorcery, Nature, Elf, and Shadow. Then the Arts are Water, Fire, Earth, Thunder, Air, Light, and Life. By pairing up an Art with a Ring, you can make all of the elements, even something that seems as contradictory as Shadow Light. Then you have to know the formula for the kind of spell effect you want."

"Whoa, how do you remember all that?" Sandy asked. "I'm a Nature mage and I can only keep track of my own Ring."

"Um, it's not that hard," X said.

"So what sort of mage are you?" Iris asked.

"He can't tell you," Sandy said, when X paused to think. "You three are too young to be tested."

Someone rang a bell outside. "Oh, they're starting now. The rest of you should go back in."

"What am I going to do?" X asked her.

"Well you've proven to me that you belong in eighth grade. You should be fine." She winked. "You should also stick with these two; they'll look out for you, I'm sure."

"Of course," Ash said. "Nobody'll mess with you here, we promise. Right?"

Sandy nodded. "Right, by our honor."

* * *

 

The meeting was simply a greetings and encouragement to the new school year. Then the reploid classes made their way upstairs. X and Zero said goodbye to each other and nervously went their own ways.

The first grade classroom had a bird theme to its decorations. There were posters, dolls, books, and even one real bird, a parakeet named Whistler by the cage's tag. Overall, the room was bright, colorful, cheerful, and most of all, cute. Zero wasn't sure how he felt about coming into this room every day to learn under Alia.

"Good morning everyone," Alia said cheerfully.

"Good morning," about half of the class replied. Two even thought to add, "Miss Alia."

She nodded. "I am Alia Smith. I can assure you we will be having a wonderful year and we will learn many fun and interesting things."

This was Alia's mirror, no doubt. Zero wondered how long he would last under her super bright cheeriness.

Pointing to a wall lined with cubbies, she ordered, "Now, line up right there, that's good. I'm going to call your names and when I do, I want you to tell everyone what your favorite animal is. First off, Yammark Gate."

Yammark looked startled to be called first. He fluttered his wings. "Oh, that's me. Um, I like dragonflies, cause that's what I am."

"Dragonflies aren't real, dork," the boy next to him said.

"Well if they aren't what am I doing here, idiot?"

"Stop that," Alia said firmly. They both stopped. "We do not insult others here at school, understand?"

"Yes Miss Alia," the two boys said, with some reluctance.

"Okay, then we have Cyber Peacock Rainier."

It was the boy who claimed dragonflies weren't real. Apparently developing just like a real peacock, he was covered in black downy feathers. "I'm here. And I might be a peacock, but I actually like bats. Bats are cool."

"That's fine. Next, Sugar Gaudile." Alia smiled at her.

Gaudile? Zero remembered seeing Cinnamon. Sugar looked much like her, only she had pink hair and wings. "Hello Miss Alia. I like platypuses, cause that's what my dad is."

"An interesting animal."

"Yup!"

"And Rainbow Swan Jupiter."

That name was completely unfamiliar. Also reflecting her real bird, Rainbow Swan managed to look uglier than Cyber did right now. "That's me," she said smugly. "I like swans, of course. I'll be much prettier when I grow up."

It won't help if that attitude doesn't change, Zero found himself thinking. Alia just nodded. "Of course. And Crystal Snail Observer."

Crystal Snail was unique in that he was allowed to wear his shell armor to school, because he was a snail. The school badge had been velcroed to his left side. "That's me. I like ferrets best. I've got a pet ferret at home. His name is Mr. Furious."

"That's very clever. And Iris Greensward."

She liked horses, Zero recalled spontaneously. She smiled sweetly. "That's me. I like horses, because they're so pretty."

"They are. And lastly, Zero Light." She gave him a direct smile too.

"I'm here." He wasn't sure what animal to say, but it came to him as he spoke. "I, um, I like wolves best. They're the guardians of the woods."

"That's very poetic of you."

"Well they are."

"Oh good, I thought we had another girl there," Cyber said. Yammark snickered.

"I am not girly," Zero insisted.

"You two cut that out," Alia told Cyber and Yammark sternly. "Cyber, you need to write an apology note to Zero before lunch."

Cyber scowled. Zero felt like he wasn't getting off to a good start.

* * *

Since Infinity had been in eighth grade last year, he led the others to their home room. "Anybody hear who we got?"

Nobody seemed to know. "What happened to the last teacher?" a boy asked. X suspected he was Lumine.

"She was out traveling and her caravan got attacked by orcs," Ash said. "Only a few people came back alive, my dad said."

"The orcs are getting desperate," one of the two girls said. "They attacked while the sun was up. Sure, it was sunset, but normally they won't come out of their caves until twilight's fully gone."

"They could have been really bored," X said. "Their caves aren't frozen and if it was a civilian caravan, there was probably nothing they wanted."

"That's true," the girl answered.

"What are you doing with us?" Lumine asked harshly. "Go back to the baby class."

"He belongs in our class," Sandy defended. "He's much smarter than you are."

"Can't be."

Ash glared at him. "Lumine, leave him alone."

Lumine scowled back, but didn't say anything. X gripped his backpack and wished he could stay with Alia's class. Here, he'd be dealing with much smarter bullies.

"We're here," Infinity said to their teacher.

The teacher gave him a stern look. "That would be here, sir." He shifted his arm, where a badge for the Snow Patrol was located. He had black armor like an elaborate coat. A black commander's hat sat on the desk. But the thing that caught X's eye was the silver ice. It encased his left leg, clung to his hair, and left streaks on his arms. He was lucky to be alive.

All the other kids seemed awed by him. Infinity blushed. "Oh, right... sorry sir."

Was he familiar? X seemed to think so, but wasn't sure who he was. He nodded and indicated the tables around the room. "Go ahead and take your seats. Civilly."

The kids did as he asked. X sat with Ash and Sandy. The girl who had talked about the orcs gave Ash a questioning look, then sat with them. That completed one table. The others took another table close to the teacher's desk, leaving two more tables completely empty.

"Did you really fight the Ice Dragon, sir?" Lumine asked.

"More than once," he replied. "I've encountered some difficulty in continuing, and thus I am here to teach you now. A little different than my usual classes, so we'll have to learn from each other, agreed?"

They agreed. X thought about it and figured that any kid in this world would greatly respect a warrior of the Snow Patrol, especially one that had fought the Ice Dragon and survived. But he must be suffering a great deal. The silver ice never melted through ordinary means, and the patrol officer probably had a difficult time moving. A cane was leaning against the wall, confirming this.

"I am Blue Dragon Lord Signas Nautilus," he introduced himself. Ah, that's who he was. X didn't recognize the mirror of the Hunter strategist because the ice grayed his hair. "But I won't be picky about the exact title. I've had enough of those things for a while. Now, I know every one of you must deserve to be here. You should understand, though, that as members of the class for intellectuals, I will expect nothing but your best."

That was the sort of thing Signas would say. X knew that this class would be challenging. Signas gave no quarter to the upper ranks. He wondered how his classmates would feel when they realized that, after the awe had worn down.

Signas picked up a clipboard. "So let's see who's misfortunate enough to join my class. Alisander Greensward, 9 years old, 3501."

That was Sandy. "Here, sir."

Signas looked at him. "Greensward, of Jando Greensward?"

Sandy nodded, looking solemn at the mention. "Yes sir."

He nodded back, apparently holding respect for Sandy's father. "Good man. Nice to meet you. Hyper Mayden Alden, 8 years old, 3505."

Who named their kid that, even a reploid? It was the girl sitting with them. "Here, sir."

"Is that really your name?"

She grinned. "Yes sir, that's me entirely!"

"I see." He flipped the page up to check something, then went back to his class list. "Leeden Lumine Leeton, 10 years old, 3782."

Somebody should have tried talking sense to Lumine's parents. Maybe Hyper's, but she seemed happy with her name. Lumine seemed annoyed. "I go by Lumine, sir."

"If you wish," Signas replied, in a tone that hinted that Lumine better not let disrespect show in his voice again. "Carol Angel Heart, 9 years old, 3814."

The other girl, who seemed to fit her name well. She wore barrettes with hearts on them and had a pair of creamy yellow wings. "Here, sir."

"You'd better put that brush away." He waited until she did so. "Washington Riviera, 9 years old, 4012."

That was Ash. "Here sir."

"Oregon's son, huh? I know him." Signas chuckled. "Anyone in the Patrol knows General Oregon Riviera."

Ash nodded, apparently used to this. "I know, sir."

"Infinity Mijinion Gate, 9 years old, 4300."

"Here sir," Infinity said proudly.

"One of Gate's clan, huh? I could've guessed that by your form."

"My dad's the best engineer out there... sir."

"One of them. And X Light, 3 years old, 4350."

Hyper smiled at him. The other table stared at him. X felt very nervous and shrank down. "Um, here, sir."

"I've heard of you, from the men of my old fort."

"Fort Madeline, sir? They were nice to us."

Signas smiled. "Certainly. Don't meet many kids who can escape Ikari Tower and Shadow Palace, and then run twenty days in the snow fields. Not many at all can do that."

X put his hand in his hair, very nervous. "Well..."

"You're probably one of the few people in the world who has seen worse things than I have. So I don't mind if you don't use 'sir' with me."

"Um, sure."

* * *

At nine-thirty, the reploid kids got to have recess. Sigma wondered what to kill time with. So far, school was being different than he expected. He couldn't slack off in class, especially not with the teacher he had.

"Hey Sigma, hold up," Sheldon said as he came up. "Remember?"

Why are you bothering me, he was going to say. But what he said was, "What's bothering you?"

Sheldon edged them toward a corner, away from the other students. "I don't like this RFF thing."

"Well then why did you join?"

"Dad made me. He threatened to kick me out of the house and make sure no one would take me in. But your parents would, right? If I got in trouble with my dad?"

"Of course," Sigma said without thinking. He tried to temper that by adding, "But your dad was probably just joking with you."

"It didn't seem like it. I mean he... um..." his lips trembled for a moment, looking quite forlorn.

At that, Sigma felt an uncharacteristic amount of concern. "What?" he asked in quiet reassurance.

However, the conversation didn't get any further. Sheldon's four older brothers came up to them. Turtloid grinned. "How's the wicked witch treating you both?"

"Ferham's terrible," Sheldon said, dropping his emotions for a well-practiced act. "She carries around a big metal rod and hits desks with it."

"And you just know that she wants to hit some kid with it," Scaravich added. "She's not supposed to hurt anyone, but I bet she would."

Yammark fluttered up to them. "Hey, whatcha guys talking about?"

"Scram, baby," Turtloid said. "This is a big kid conference."

The little insect put his hands on his hips defiantly. "I'm not the baby. Wolfang's the baby."

Vile and Dynamo came up from behind the kid. "You are a baby," Vile said, shoving the dragonfly over.

Indignant, Sheldon went to his younger brother and helped him off the ground. "Don't be so mean to him."

Agile raced up and stopped abruptly within their group. "What's a baby doing with us?"

"I'm telling Miss Alia!" Yammark cried as he ran off. Sigma rolled his eyes. Kid politics were no better than adult politics. They were just more open.

Agile started jumping up and down. "Hey, hey, did you hear, did you hear?"

"What's gotten into you?" Dynamo asked.

"There's something really crazy going on. Right Serges?"

Serges, Violen, and Lumine came to the corner. That completed the RFF children's unit, so far as Sigma knew. Serges didn't seem impressed by whatever gossip Agile was raving about. "Well Lumine said it," emphasizing Lumine's name in a bad way.

"It's true, I tell you."

"What's this about?" Sigma said sternly.

"There's a pair of baby reploids this year that escaped Ikari Tower and Shadow Palace. And as if that weren't enough, they crossed the snow fields on their own."

"No way," Vile said, although part of him seemed impressed. "Any one of those things is impossible, especially for baby reploids."

Trying to save face, Lumine looked to the oddest Gate child. "It's true. Right Infinity?"

He nodded. "It is. One of them, get this, he's in eighth grade with us. And Lord Signas respects this kid so much that he's allowed to address him informally. Can you believe that? A baby reploid allowed to address a Snow Patrol commander informally."

"It's those kids over there," Lumine pointed out. "Those two boys with the geeks."

Sigma looked. To his annoyance, it was X and Zero. They were sitting on a bench by the school building, talking to an older pair of boys and a little girl. Although in the same uniform as the rest of the kids, and much smaller, he could recognize Zero by his hair, and then X by his general looks.

Dynamo snorted. "Them? Man, they're really babies."

"They're the others," Sigma said.

"What are you talking about?" Sheldon asked.

"You remember what King said. The three stars brought three blessings to three children. Two would become the bane of our existence, and it's those two."

"I hope you're joking," Metal Shark Player said, with a slight threat to his voice.

"No, I'd believe him," Lumine said. "That X kid has a higher STERE score than Infinity."

"Hey!" he cried indignantly.

Seemingly more comfortable with that, he replied, "Come on, how can you not see that he's an unnatural genius? I mean, didn't you hear him answering Lord Signas' magic question?"

"He must have cheated," Infinity insisted. "No way some three-year-old can have a higher score than me."

Sigma had been thinking about how to undermine X and Zero from trying anything. "If they're doing impossible things and he's too smart to be real, then maybe they had supernatural help. Although it would take evil forces to do so."

"Like they had help from demons?" Vile asked, scandalized.

"Maybe. But I know they're the ones from the dreams the star gave me. They'll ruin us someday if we're not careful."

"Then we have to stop them before they stop us," Dynamo said. Everyone else seemed to agree.

Sigma smiled. This was working out splendidly. Now he just had to confirm his role as leader. How to accomplish that?

He heard a squeal from behind him. "Eee, Sigma, my sweet bamboo!" Some girl hugged him from behind. "I haven't seen you all summer!"

Most of the others snickered at him. Sigma threw her off. "Hey, cut that out."

Sheldon nodded. "Yeah Hyper, go find someone else to pester."

Sigma turned to face Hyper Mayden. She had golden eyes and light blue hair that just touched her shoulders. "But he's my sweetie pie. Right?"

"I am not your sweetie pie," Sigma said. "Leave me alone."

"Aw, but I missed you."

"Go away."

Giving him a semi-fiendish look, she teased, "I'm gonna tickle you."

Sigma shoved her away, making her trip. "Get lost, dimwit."

She looked very upset. "How dare you break my heart?" She ran off.

"About time you got rid of her," Dynamo said.

"She's not important. So anything come through the past few days?"

* * *

By lunchtime, it had spread like wildfire that two of the three-year-olds had come from Ikari Tower. "Did you tell other people that?" Zero asked.

"Signas knew. He used to be based at Fort Madeline."

"Oh I see. But you know, it's kinda creepy, the way everyone else looks at us."

"I know. Sometimes I think that everyone here should be dead, even the humans and the reploids we didn't know. There were a lot of times when we simply arrived too late."

"That's not our fault," Zero insisted.

"It still bothers me. And my age seems to have amplified my imagination."

Zero started to say something, but Ash and Sandy came up to their table. "Sorry to leave you for a bit. We promised to trade some cards with Storm Eagle."

"That's fine, Zero found me."

"So you guys cousins or something?" Ash asked.

"No, just best friends. We've been together our whole lives."

"At least as far as you can remember," X said. Zero shrugged.

Sandy was looking around. "Did Iris come with you? I have to look out for her especially well."

Ash shook his head. "You're more worried than she is. She's a smart girl; she'll do fine."

"Still, I can't let my dad down... oh, there she is. Hey Iris!"

Iris came up with Sugar Gaudile. "I made a new friend already, Sugar. This is my nerdy brother Sandy and my geeky cousin Ash."

Sugar smiled. "Hi. Oh, hi Zero! Who's that?"

"My best friend, X."

They got into their lunches, at which Sandy discovered, to his dismay, "Ack, my mom put relish on my sandwich again. I told her to stop doing that last year."

"But your mom's relish is the best," Ash said. "Trade you my ham and swiss."

"Go right ahead." They traded. Then X traded his pear for Sugar's carrots and peanut butter, and Sandy tried to trade off his green apple, but no one wanted it.

Iris tugged at her brother's sleeve. "Guess what? Miss Alia is going to teach us about spring."

"She always does," Ash said.

"Does she have pictures?" Sugar asked.

"Lots," Sandy said.

"My big sister says everything will get better when spring returns," Sugar said, sounding awed. "You think so?"

"Of course it will," Ash said. "If the adults say so, then it will be."

"But the wall will come down when spring comes back," Iris said. "Will we be safe?"

"Sure, we'll be safe," Sandy replied. "When spring comes, the Ice Dragon will be dead. She made winter."

"So winter won't ever come back?"

"It'll come back," Zero said. "But not this bad."

"No," Sandy replied. "If the Ice Dragon is dead, winter will never come back."

"But winter's caused by normal time cycles, not any stupid dragon."

"How do you know that?"

"I've seen spring."

"You've seen spring?" the other four asked at once.

"It wasn't really spring," X corrected. "It was just a shadow of spring in Shadow Palace. None of that was real."

"So you didn't," Iris said, disappointed.

"We know about spring," X said. "It's part of the normal seasonal cycle. It goes spring, summer, autumn, winter, and then back to spring, every year. At least, it's supposed to do that. The Ice Dragon simply stuck us in winter. Once she's gone, the cycle should return to normal."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Ash said. "I mean, you were in Ikari Tower, the worst place in the world."

"You're right there," Zero said.

"There's a huge library there," X explained. "I taught myself."

They ate for a little while. Then Sandy asked, "I heard that the master of Ikari Tower actually eats little kids. Is that true?"

"You still believe that?" Ash said.

Sandy shivered. "It's just too freaky to forget. There was this horrible story about..."

"No gross stories during lunch," Iris insisted. "Mom says so."

"Oh fine."

"I never heard of him eating kids," Zero said. "Although he kept those betagators awful close to our room. And he is an evil man."

X rubbed his nose, then said, "Actually, there's two Masters in Ikari Tower."

"Two?" Ash asked.

"Master Wily and Master Domino. They're both evil. I never met Master Wily in person, although sometimes I heard his voice. And Master Domino," X shuddered.

"Master Domino was freaky," Zero said. "He never actually killed anyone with his own hands, but he can make anyone do anything he wants."

"Now that's really evil," Ash said. "Treating other people just as puppets."

"He did."

Another reploid child, a spider, came up to his table. "Hey guys, hope you don't mind."

"Nah, you can join us," Sandy said. "Guys, this is Web Spider; everyone calls him Spinner."

Spinner waved one of his feet. "Hi. Look, I'll meet you all properly later. But the kids of our district have decided to warn everyone."

"Of what?"

"Sigma and Lumine."

"What about them?" Sandy asked. "Sigma's a spoiled rotten brat and Lumine's the worst bully in school. Everyone knows that."

"Yeah, but not everyone knows what happened earlier this summer. Sigma shoved Lumine off a playground tower, after breaking his nose by punching him. "

Ash put his red apple down. "Wait a moment, are we talking about the same Sigma? Cause Sigma's never won a fight and he chickened out of that incident with Sparks."

Spinner stood himself taller on his legs. "He's changed. Now he's a worse bully than Lumine. Just wait until you meet with him again. There's an evil spark in his eyes, I'm sure. So we're all warning you: stay away from Sigma." Then he moved on to warn others.

"Well that's weird," Sandy said. "He finally gets some nerve and starts bullying others."

"He was enough of a headache as he was."

"Why is Lumine still in school?" X asked. "He's ten and his score is high enough."

"He has a really bad birthday," Ash explained. "September third. The cut off for the ceremony is September first."

"Still, he's a nasty kid. You'd best keep away from both of them."

* * *

Sigma left school a little late, because Hyper had cornered him and tried to get an explanation for their 'breakup.' He sent her off in tears again. Why was she like that? They were kids, and apparently weren't old enough to be interested in dating. She was gong to be an annoyance.

School was going to be an even worse annoyance, he thought as he walked down the mostly empty hall. He felt so stupid today. Long division and multiplication of fractions should not be a problem for a reploid. And then there was his memory. Sometimes he remembered everything of his old world. Sometimes he remembered nothing. Sometimes he ran into a kid that he knew but didn't know. It was so confusing that it was giving him a headache.

He left the building and who was standing around the bottom of the steps? X and Zero; they were looking over some papers. Sigma felt mad. "Hey, you two!"

They both were startled. "Sigma?" X asked in confusion.

"What do you want?" Zero asked in challenge.

"What the hell happened to us? Why are we in this world?"

"You too?" X asked, confused.

"Of course, you idiots. I thought you were dead. Instead I wind up in this awful world. You'd better have a good exit strategy."

"Um..."

Zero glared at him. "Leave us alone, you spoiled brat."

Sigma tensed on being called that. "Don't call me that, Ikari demons."

"We're not demons," X said, although his voice betrayed an uncharacteristic level of fear.

"You're going to pay for getting me into this." Sigma punched X in the shoulder, missing his face.

And X... ran off crying? Sigma felt a mix of confusion and pride on seeing it. But in watching X run away, he missed Zero losing his temper. The much smaller Zero grabbed Sigma's right arm and bit hard enough to draw blood.

It hurt terribly. Unconsciously, Sigma backed up. His eyes were watering. "What did you do that for?"

Zero shifted into an aggressive fighting stance, even if it made him look unpracticed. "You hit him! I can do much worse."

All right, so Zero was less than three foot high, and Sigma was almost four. The fight should have been a cakewalk. To his own dismay, he ran off too, almost crying. I'm an idiot, Sigma thought. That was no reason to run. It wasn't like him. Then again, X and Zero were acting strangely too.

A hand grabbed his shoulder. "Sigma, there you are. We missed the bus; we're going to have to wait... what happened to your arm?" Roger knelt and looked at the bite mark.

"One of those Ikari demons bit me," he said, trying to keep the hurt sound out of his voice.

"So that's true? I thought it was a rumor."

"They're evil kids. They shouldn't be in school."

Roger shook his head. "Now think about that. If they've lived in Ikari Tower all their life, they're probably not sure how to cooperate with others. Why did he bite you?"

"Because he's mean."

Roger sighed. "Let's go home."

* * *

 

X ran into the house, shutting the door firmly behind him. He was exhausted after running so far. Shoot. If only he had his adult body, that run would have been nothing. Then again, if he had his adult body, he probably would not have run.

"Good afternoon," Rock said. "What's wrong?"

X hugged him. "It was scary. I don't want to go back."

"What was so bad?"

"There were too many people. And Zero and I were in different classes."

"You were? Where is Zero?"

"I thought he was right behind me."

Zero came in then, also looking like he'd run the whole way. "You okay?"

"I guess."

"Why were you running?" Rock brushed X's bangs back with his hand.

"Um..." X twisted his hair in his hand.

"There was this mean bully, Sigma," Zero said, spitefully. "He punched X in the shoulder. I yelled at him for being so mean and he ran off. He's a bad kid."

"You need to stand up to bullies," Rock said. "Once they learn you're not scared of them, they won't bother you."

"But I don't want to hurt anybody."

"You can be assertive without hurting anyone. So why were you in different classes?"

"Because Zero's a normal kid and I'm not."

"That's not bad," Zero insisted. "He had a really really good score on the STERE. 4350, I think, so he went straight to eighth grade."

"Really? That's wonderful. I knew you were smart, but I didn't know you were that smart."

"But we were separate, and the eighth grade teacher is really strict, even with me."

"Ash and Sandy were with you," Zero said. "Ash threatened to put Vile's eye out for teasing you during recess."

"I guess. Maybe we should walk home with them; we had to stay a bit longer to finish registration and they had to be home early for a Scout meeting."

Rock nodded. "I'm sure you can trust those boys. If they're anything like their fathers, you shouldn't have anything to worry about."

"Why's that?" Zero asked.

"Well Ash's father, General Oregon Riviera is one of the most respected generals in the Snow Patrol, and with good reason. I appointed him myself; he does everything necessary to keep people from harm."

"What about Sandy's dad? Jando Greensward, I think."

"That's him." Rock bit his lip. "Jando is a martyr and is quickly growing into a legend. There was a small town, Odessa, which managed to survive up until six years ago. It was a historically and culturally important place, which is why the Greenswards and others stayed on. But then the Ice Dragon attacked Odessa directly. Jando fought her off alone, and very nearly destroyed her, while allowing the others to leave Odessa safely."

"Really?" Zero asked. "He must have been very brave."

"He was. I do wish we could have sent someone to help in time. But as I said... if those two inherited any of their fathers' honor, you have nothing to fear with them as your friends."


	11. At The Zoo

Maple Street Schools  
September 14, XX54

Zero walked toward the stairway. The crowd was dispersing, but X would likely wait until it was almost clear. When it did, he came down. Zero waved. "Hi X. How was today?"

"All right. I'm getting less nervous, I think. Signas had us working on our study plans, but since I'm only three, I don't need a specified one. How were you?"

"Good, except we had to sing this disgustingly cute song. If the guys back home ever heard that I had to sing about dancing robins and twittering chickadees, I'd be too embarrassed to show my face again."

X chuckled. "It's creativity development, silly."

They went down the halls, planning on going straight home. But their friends were outside, talking to Roll and Sonya. "I can watch Iris on my own now," Sandy said. "That's why we haven't been over lately."

Roll smiled. "I see. I'm sure you're quite responsible about it. But you're all welcome over any time you wish."

"Can we come over tomorrow and make gingerbread cookies with the boys?" Iris asked.

"If you want. Good afternoon, X, Zero."

They exchanged greetings, but Sandy, Iris, and Ash soon went home. Sonya then told them, "We have some hours free, so we decided to take you over to the zoo today. Would you like that?"

"Sure."

They waited on a bus and went to the southern part of the city. Monsteropolis was filled with many buildings, until one hit Cedar Lane. To the south of Cedar, giant geometric globes bubbled up to form an enormous greenhouse. "Wow," Zero said. "That's impressive."

"This is the most vital part of any city today, even more than the wall and shields. The zoo is only a small part of it. Most is devoted to the commons farm, where they grow a lot of our foods."

"It also cleans up the air and water of the city," Roll added. "Life would be a lot less comfortable without the greenhouse."

"I'd imagine." X looked at Roll. "Can we go see the farm too?"

She shook her head. "No. They don't want anyone tampering with the produce."

"Oh, I see. I just thought it would be interesting to see how they do it."

"They have a farm and utilities tour sometimes. Maybe they'll have one running today."

That tour wasn't open, but the zoo was interesting enough. Since the building was secure, it was all right for X and Zero to wander off (but not too far) to other displays. Zero looked at a sign in front of a glass enclosed pen. "Cockatrice. It looks like a chicken headed dog with wings."

"It's very dangerous," X said. "If it wasn't for the glass, we'd be turned into stone by looking at its eyes."

"Why are they keeping something like that here?"

"I'm not sure. But it looks like they know what they're doing by the cage design."

The next display had very low security, only a low fence and a sign warning, 'Do not tease the Cactaurs'. It was a desert environment with rocks and plenty of desert plants. There was also a reploid boy in the pen, holding a lighter near a cluster of green lumps in the sand.

Zero frowned. "Hey, isn't that..." the name slipped him.

"Dynamo," X told him. "He tried to shove me off the slide yesterday."

"What's he doing?"

"I don't know. I don't know what cactaurs are either, but they don't look too happy."

Zero slipped over the fence. "Hey, stop that."

Dynamo looked back. "What's it to you, runt?"

"Stop teasing the animals."

"Animals?" He snorted. "These are plant monsters, not animals. Besides, if you set them on fire, they turn black and explode. It's nifty."

"The sign says these ones are tame," X said.

"Leave them alone, Dynamo."

"What I'm doing is none of your..." he paused as he turned to face Zero. "Hey, where'd you get that?" He came over and tried to snatch the badge off of Zero. It snapped and knocked him over.

"I got it from the Dust Bunny King," Zero said proudly.

"You have Dusty Blade?" Dynamo asked, stunned. "But you're only a baby. I'm eight years old and I've never had it, despite the fact that I'm the best of the dueler's club."

"Maybe you never got it because you explode tamed cactaurs."

Dynamo drew his blade, unlocked it quickly, and activated a dull gray blade. "I don't care who's training you or why. I'm better than you could be, ever."

Zero unlocked Dusty and activated that. "I'm not scared of you."

"Hey, what's going on in there?"

X looked at the girl who asked that. "Oh, hi Hyper. Dynamo was teasing the cactaurs and Zero's trying to stop him."

She nodded. Now in her base armor, she looked like a lavishly decorated sugar cookie. The armor was golden tan with a myriad of colorful decorations. Her blue hair was tied back with multicolored ribbons. And to complete the image, she was snacking on a rainbow colored lollipop. "He's always mean. But I know how to stop him. Hey Mrs. Dancer!"

X laughed. "His name is Dynamo Dancer?"

Hyper giggled. "Isn't it the funniest?"

Dynamo paled. "My mom's here?"

"Yeah, and she's coming pretty quick."

"Shoot. We'll finish this later." He shut off his blade and jumped over the back wall.

Zero put his sword up. "Thanks."

"His mom's not really here, is she?" X asked.

"Not that I know of. She's a scary witch."

"At least he didn't get any of them." Zero came back to the fence.

X pointed in the cage. "Hold on, look."

Zero turned back to see the cactaurs coming over to him. When they got close, they popped out of the ground. About Zero's size, they looked like stick figures made from cactuses. They rustled for a bit, like leaves in the wind. Then they all tipped over at once, in a stiff bow. "Um."

"You should bow back, like a gentleman," Hyper suggested.

"Okay." Zero bowed back.

One of the cactaurs hopped next to Zero and rustled some more. One of its stick arms began to glow light green. In a moment, Zero's right hand began to glow light green.

"Hey, what's it doing now?"

"Oh, you're a spell-sword? He's giving you a sword spell, spell-sword." She laughed.

"That's Nature's Ring," X said. "Copying the natural spells of animals and plants."

"I see. Thank you, um, Mr. Cactaur."

The cactaur rustled. Then the plant monsters went back to their usual business. Zero climbed over the fence, but Roll and Sonya came back before he managed to. "You're not supposed to be in the cages."

"It's okay, lady," Hyper said. "He was defending them against a lighter-wielding bully."

"It's part of the hero's code, to defend the defenseless," Zero explained.

"In that case, it's okay. But just this once." Roll ruffled his hair.

X introduced them to Hyper and she explained what she was doing here alone. "My parents both work in the farm area, so I come here every day after school. I know all the animals and all about them."

"Do you know when the farm tours are held?" Sonya asked. "X was interested in them."

"That's only once a month, but I don't think it's worth the time. They stick to the main paths and don't tell you much of anything. But if you really want to see them, you ought to get a private educational tour. It really doesn't cost much and you do have to sign papers promising you won't mess with anything. But they'll take you right up to the plants and let you walk along the maintenance paths. That's really neat."

"So they'll show me the utilities too?" X asked.

"Sure. They love showing smart kids around. I go every year on my birthday."

"That sounds good," Roll said. "Do you want to do that sometime?"

"Sure, if it's not too much trouble."

"I'll manage some time away. Could you get us the papers, please?"

Hyper nodded. "Yes, I'll ask my dad about it tonight, and get them to you sometime in class.

* * *

 

Dynamo made his way back to the entrance. That stupid girl. She was crazy and he had no idea how she kept skipping grades. And he was beginning to hate that runt too. If he ever showed up to the dueling club, Dynamo would beat him sore.

But instead of leaving, he stopped in the entrance and looked around. There were a dozen people in the area, but the one he was interested in was sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper. Dynamo went to sit on that bench. "They are here," he whispered. "I left them near the cactaur display."

Quint nodded. "Good work. Who's with them?"

"Roll and some other woman... did my mom come in?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

"I'm gonna get Hyper for that," he muttered.

"You'd better get home before your mom suspects anything. We'll take care of things from here."

"You sure you're going to get them?"

"This will be a snap. Go on, shoo."

Dynamo rolled his eyes and left.

* * *

 

Hyper walked with them, happy to tell anything about the animals she knew well. But X became increasingly uneasy. He saw someone move out of the corner of his eye. X looked back, but there was no one suspicious. Feeling on the brink of another panic attack, maybe over nothing, he tugged at Sonya's hand. "Someone is watching us."

"Hmm?" Sonya looked around. "It's okay, X. You probably feel the security office."

"No, it's someone dangerous. We have to go, now."

"This place is safe. There's Guardians everywhere. Like right over there, see?"

"But this is a real threat."

"I guess it is a little late. Hey Roll."

Roll turned around. She looked at them, then stared at something behind them. A jet bike flew right by X and Sonya. King tried to snatch X; somehow he missed and got Hyper instead. Zero noticed. He tried to stop King by grabbing hold of his leg and wound up being dragged along as he sped off with Hyper. All this happened in the blink of an eye.

Roll turned to watch them and called, "He's got both kids!"

Several people were screaming. X felt another danger. "Roll, look out!"

Even as he spoke, Punk rushed by on another jet bike. He tried to snatch X, but a combination of he was going too fast and X had moved to the other side of Sonya worked against him. Punk cursed, didn't slow down as he plowed right into Roll, then pursued King. Roll collapsed from the impact.

X ran over to her. "Roll?" He mentally began calculating Fairy Cure.

"I can hear you," Roll said, but she was obviously pained.

X cast his spell, but realized his powers weren't enough to fully cure her. But it should make things easier on the doctors who could fix her back. As he was doing so, the Guardian Sonya had pointed out spoke over the intercom. "Code Orange 12, two adult reploid males, two reploid children, headed west corridor 9D, immediate b-ack!"

Ballade had thrown a bomb at the Guardian, knocking him down. He threw another at Sonya, Roll, and X. "Give those children back to us or we will kill you all," he threatened.

Sonya reacted quickly, summoning a trident. She used that to hit the bomb right back at Ballade. Then she twisted her wrist just so and sent a ball of electricity after him. "You will do neither," she said sternly.

* * *

It all happened without a single thought. King rushed by and snatched Hyper. Zero grabbed hold of King. The jet bike was riding dangerously low; Zero risked getting dragged and killed. But it didn't matter. He made his way onto King's leg and grabbed his arm. "Hey, let her go!"

In a quick motion, King captured Zero and secured him. "So you want to play hero, huh?"

Hyper was not being a good hostage. She squirmed until one arm got free. "You jerk!" She punched King in the face as hard as she could.

Not able to handle two active kids at once, King got a better hold of Hyper's neck. "I don't need you anymore." He threw her into a concrete wall.

"Hyper!" Zero bit King's arm, in retaliation and an attempt to get away himself.

King now pinned Zero to the bike. "You never learn, do you pretty brat?"

A bright light came from ahead. "Halt! Let the child go at once!"

"Idiots," King grumbled. He fired the bike's guns.

Zero saw at least two hit, possibly dead, Guardians as they drove past. He had to do something. Before long, he noticed that King was wearing civilian clothing today. There was a plan that might actually work in this world. He tensed up his body and then kicked King between the legs.

King cursed something awful, but let go of Zero. He rolled himself off the bike. Although his back ached from landing badly, he got up and scrambled into the nearest display. Whatever was here had to be less deadly then King. Especially after he yelled, "How dare you do that to me!"

Zero passed a large snake, which slithered out of his way. This pen was marshy for said snake. On either side, the neighboring pens were also marshy or swampy. There was a tall concrete wall ahead of him. He still had wall-cling, at least. He ran for the wall.

Before he reached it, King stormed into the display without his bike. The snake reared up and hissed in annoyance. King's attention and anger was focused solely on Zero. "I wish I could kill you right now."

Under normal circumstances, Zero wouldn't mind taking on this fight. But as a child, he was both overpowered and outmaneuvered. He went ahead and activated Dusty Blade. "You aren't taking me back." He didn't sound strong or brave at all.

King smirked and activated his rune sword. It was possibly six feet long and one foot across. It had a gold outline surrounding a transparent blade. There were several gold runes on it, but Zero couldn't identify any of them. And it could easily cleave him in two. "You foolish child. Do you really think you can take on me? I am far beyond your meager abilities and..."

While probably true, King's boast gave Zero enough time to calculate the spell the cactaur gave him. It was a simple spell. He thought of a few runes and then thrust his sword ahead. A thousand tiny needles of light appeared and fired at King. Each needle did a tiny amount of damage, but there were a thousand of them at once. King stumbled back, screaming. Zero took the chance and climbed the wall, leaving his captor with a very angry snake.

Zero shut down Dusty and put it away. At the top of the wall, he looked around quickly, for a spot to hide until Guardians came after him. But before he could find such a spot, Punk sprang from hiding. He snatched Zero off the wall. "Hey bishie, are you being a pain?"

Okay, Punk was high off the ground, ruling out the way Zero got away from King. He tried to think up another way when Punk slammed his head into the bike's jet. Zero blacked out.

* * *

Sonya was a good fighter despite not being in her native underwater environment. She kept Ballade from taking X. Just behind her, X knelt by Roll and tried to think of some other spell to help with. He wrestled with strong fears and finally thought of 5.0/W/R/h. Since Blue Ray was a homing spell, he focused his attention on Ballade and began calculating numbers.

Before he could finish, Enker appeared on another jet bike and snatched X. Since he came from behind, Sonya didn't notice until Roll called, "X!" But then it was too late.

Enker made a quick turn and headed straight for the exit. X recovered from the sudden capture, but then fell immediately into panic. He got dizzy, which made him feel nauseous as he watched the surrounding area rush by. Worst of all, Blue Ray continued calculating itself, filling in holes with random runes to jumble up the whole thing.

He soon realized that berserk magic was not a good thing. He attempted to regain control, but his aura was already primed to cast something. And it was so hard to concentrate with the physical symptoms of fear reaching painful levels.

Punk joined Enker noisily. Zero was limp in the Hunter's arms. "You accursed brats," he scowled. "Giving us all this trouble. We're going to make you sorry you ever thought of leaving the Tower."

"You're both going to be sorry in a moment," X replied.

Enker gripped X's neck hard. "What are you going to do about it?"

Punk smirked. "I dare you. I can smash his head into the jets again."

"You interrupted my spell."

The smirk on Punk's face fell. Enker said, "Oh sh..."

Blue Ray finished the random calculation and fired. It was supposed to be a concentrated beam of energy that homed in on the target. Now it exploded, capturing both bikes in the blast. Nine rays did stream out in random directions, but curved back in and hit Enker and Punk for more damage. In the blast, the two boys got thrown into a group of trees of a nearby display. The two bikes were torn to shreds, throwing the Hunters a hundred feet ahead.

They fell at Quint's feet. Their leader was inspecting his own rune, drawn on the floor. It was to provide a quick get-away with the two brats, once the four Hunters and King came back. King came back almost at the same time. His clothing was riddled with tiny holes. He looked in a mood to kill. Moments later, Ballade appeared, cursing Sonya under his breath.

Quint looked contemptuously at the others, somehow defeated by a pair of kids. Then he noticed, "Hey, where are the kids?"

"Where is that little blue bastard?" Punk yelled, getting up.

Quint's spell did exactly as it was supposed to: teleport them all away when they appeared, with the kids or not. X watched from a nearby tree. That was an extremely close call. Maybe he ought to keep a better tab on his psychic senses. Although the threat was gone, X sat up there for a minute, his whole body shaking.

There was a noise from the other tree. X looked there quickly and saw Zero falling. Most likely, he had just regained consciousness in the tree and wasn't able to secure himself first. But he was caught. "Careful there."

Zero looked puzzled. "Forte? Hey, you're okay!"

Forte nodded and put him on a bench. "You don't look so well. Lay there until the Guardians come, okay? I'll keep an eye on you."

"Could you look for Hyper? She's one of X's classmates and she got thrown into a wall."

"They took another child?"

"They were just after us, but didn't care who got in the way."

He looked worried. "I see. I should have expected so much. I'll look for her, and X. But listen, I can't stick around here. If I'm captured within this city, they could kill me."

"Who?"

"Either my brothers or the City Guard. Speaking of which, there's a Guardian."

"We'll talk to them. You helped us, so maybe they would listen."

"I'd rather not take the chance. Remember, keep my true name a secret. And if you ever wish to speak with me, talk to my wolfoids. I'll be watching."

Forte left Zero and began looking for X. But X was frozen stiff with fear. Why? He asked himself that. The danger was past, so why was he still afraid?

The Guardian came upon Zero, in surprise. He reported that Hyper had been found and there was an ambulance coming to pick them all up. Good, so they were all safe. Now if only X could get himself out of this tree.

While he was distracted in fearful thoughts, Forte climbed up to the branch he was on. "X, come on down. It's safe now."

"It's never safe," X said softly.

Forte couldn't come out as far as he was, but he offered his hand. "Come on. You're not going to..." he paused as X managed to turn and look at him. "Oh, I see."

"Huh?"

"You've been cursed with a thousand fears. But a curse is never who you truly are. Come on, take my hand. I'll get you down, at least."

Knowing the curse's nature, X could feel how it was constraining him. It was a struggle to come to Forte, but he forced the child's body to. Forte brought him to the ground. X tried to thank him, but his throat was tense.

Forte took X's hands. "Don't ever forget; I'm always watching out for you. And no matter how your curse may say otherwise, you are very safe when your father is close by. I trust Rock to do all he can to keep you so. I'm sorry, but I must leave now." He slipped away.

The Guardians found him standing there soon after, although he didn't let anyone touch him until Sonya came.


	12. Lake of Fire

September 29, XX54  
Light residence/Oak Street Park

It was a sunny day, relatively nice. X and Zero bugged Roll until she allowed them to leave the house. "I want you to take these panic alarms in case of trouble," she insisted. "Stay on the main paths. And dress warmly."

"We will," X promised. They dressed in their cloaks and ice boots and went outside.

"So where are we going today?" Zero asked.

"We have a lot of research to do about getting to our home world, whether it's us actually going there or just getting in contact with them. I know you don't like research, but it must be done."

"I know. So to the library?"

"To the library."

But before they got there, they ran into Sandy. He was wearing a winter cloak as well, but they could tell his child armor was similar to his adult armor. "Hey guys. What are you doing today?"

They glanced at each other. "Not much. Why?"

"Well, me and Ash got into an argument with Sigma, about how he was teasing you yesterday."

X blushed. "You didn't have to do that for me."

"We did it anyhow. So the fight got out of hand, and Lord Signas suggested we settle it through a snowball fight today. Well Sigma's got his band of bad kids coming in, and we need a lot of help..."

"A snowball fight?" Zero asked, interested.

"We'll help, since you were trying to help me," X said.

"Thanks. Come on, I'll take you to our fort."

They followed him to a nearby park. "Looks like we got drafted into Repliforce," X whispered.

"Wouldn't our Signas be so thrilled to hear that?"

X chuckled. They came around to Ash's snow fort, where a number of kids were milling about. "Looks like we really are joining Repliforce."

Zero nodded. Along with key members of Repliforce as kids, like Cyber, there was Crystal Snail, Chill Penguin, and Hyper Mayden. Sandy ran up to Ash. His child armor was much simpler than his adult armor, only a golden yellow body suit lacking decorations and a helmet. The color made his already muddled blond hair look dirty brown. "I found X and Zero."

"Great, thanks for coming." He checked his watch. "Okay everyone, listen up. It's almost the appointed time. Looks like we have fourteen members of our Junior Snow Patrol."

"But Sigma still has twenty or so," Jet Stingray said.

"Doesn't matter. We have all the good kids and good kids win over bad kids every time."

"Are you sure about that?" Split Mushroom asked. "They make fun of me everyday."

"It happens on TV all the time, so it must be true."

X put his hand over his face. "That sounds like the General we knew," he whispered.

Zero nodded, slightly worried. "Let's hope he can run a snowball battle better than a war."

"Hey, you blighted wimps!" Sigma called out from his fort. "You'd better give up now or be humiliated the rest of the year."

"You're going home as icicles!" Ash called back.

One of the Gate kids threw the first snowball and it was total mayhem from there. The battle wasn't orderly in any manner, although the 'commanders' occasionally gave warnings of incoming barrages or orders to pick on or defend a certain kid. Kids with certain talents, like flying or affinity to ice and snow, had the edge, which should have meant that the best player would have been Jet Stingray. He was a flyer, and while his affinity was for liquid state water, it counted in his favor.

But the best snowballer turned out to be Zero. Although his battle abilities had been greatly reduced, he had his base talents, including a knack for hitting a target dead on with a thrown object. He was the smallest child out there, but that just made him harder to hit. Zero managed to hit more of his intended targets than any other child in the park. Back at their fort, Frost Walrus was icing over some snowballs. Zero refused the ice balls. "I'd probably knock somebody out cold," he explained.

X was fairly good, but his fear curse made it difficult to remain in the action long. Ash didn't seem to mind. "You help defend Iris, then."

"Iris? Where is she?"

Ash pointed to a building, where she was observing from a fire escape. "I don't mind Hyper out there; once she heard about the battle, there was no keeping her out of it. But Iris is a young lady, you see, and those guys are going to hit anybody."

"Okay." X went over to the fire escape, letting Sandy get into the middle of the fray.

Iris smiled at him, swinging her legs through the barred structure. "Hi X."

"Hi Iris. It's getting too intense down there."

"I can tell. Oh... Ash! Scaravich is putting rocks in his snowballs!"

"That's a dirty trick," X said.

The girl nodded. "Sigma isn't playing fair. He's keeping to the far side where nobody can reach him. See?"

Sigma was standing on top of his fort, but as Iris said, it was far from Ash's fort and with their smaller group, no one could go out to attack Sigma.

"Yeah. Hmm, well I can see him now. If their side is going to put rocks in snowballs, I can probably do this." X called a snowball from Ash's pile to him by telekinesis.

"Are you going to put a curse on the ball?"

"No, I'm just going to make sure it hits him." He drew a few runes on the snowball, instructing it to home in on the target. X concentrated on Sigma, waited until the snowball's aura was active, then threw it from the fire escape stairs. Once it hit, he called down to Ash, "Hey Ash, have Storm Owl, Cyber, and Jet fly over high and hit Sigma."

Ash made an affirmative sign and gave orders. Sigma had a few flyers, but his best, Magma Dragoon, was having trouble keeping his snowballs as snow. Zero and Sandy managed to distract the other flyers so their three could perform their task.

"You're going to pay for this!" Sigma yelled.

"Go freeze your tongue off," Storm Owl yelled as he threw his last snowball. Sigma yelped and ran off.

"Okay, after the rest!" Ash called. Sigma's gang still outnumbered them, but after seeing their leader turn tail, the rest scattered.

"We actually won!" Cyber yelled.

"That was great, everyone," Ash said as the rest came back.

"Indeed, that was," Signas said.

Everyone paused. No one had seen Signas during the battle, but there he was, leaning on his cane and smiling at them. Ash smiled back and saluted. "Afternoon, Lord Signas."

Signas nodded and returned the salute. "Afternoon, Commander Washington. You've done well, all of you. That was good strategy, X, and it was very good of you to accept such advice, Ash."

"You were watching us?" Ash asked.

"Of course. I told you of the duel of honor; did you think I would miss that? The ice balls were a bit much, but you only threw them at heavily armored opponents. Much better than throwing rock snowballs at just anybody. I'll have to give those kids a good lecture on true honor."

"Do you think we could be in the real Snow Patrol when we're older?" Sandy asked hopefully.

"I don't see why not. I'll put the word in to watch out for you lot. We'll need our best and brightest to put down the Ice Dragon once and for all."

"But I heard only children can see the Ice Dragon," X pointed out. "And that she regenerates her body of ice in seconds."

Signas nodded. "That's true, my young scholar. She is a tricky puzzle. But no puzzle is unsolvable. Even if you must rearrange the problem itself, there is always a solution."

Hyper smiled. "Yeah, like my dad says, intelligence and wisdom will overcome all odds."

"An excellent thing to keep in mind. But now it is not wise to stay out in the cold as wet as you all have gotten. Go celebrate your victory in warmth at home. I should be heading back in myself."

"See you Monday, Lord Signas," Ash said, echoed by several others.

Zero found X and they began walking home. "I don't think we can get to the library in time."

"I know, that's fine. We can probably get someone to take us later." X smiled. "That was kinda fun, actually."

"That was really fun! Maybe just because we're kids, but I had a great time."

"Hey X." Ash came to his other side. "You all right now?"

"Mostly." He touched his left ear. "Someone hit me with an ice ball and I got confused for a bit. Once I lost focus, it all got scary."

"That's okay. There were a lot of kids out there. But hey, if we get into another snowball battle, now I know to put you on the sidelines. That homing spell you put on that one worked really well."

"Thanks. But that wasn't a hard spell."

Ash shrugged. "Well I wouldn't know otherwise. I'm completely deaf to magic."

"Really?" Zero asked. "That's terrible."

"Maybe, but I can manage. Sandy's pretty good with magic, so he handles anything we come across."

X touched his chin, thinking. "But aura is the power of the soul... how did you wind up deaf to aura?"

"I do have an aura, I just can't feel it myself. It's some weird glitch; my dad has it too. There is one good thing about it."

"If you can't feel aura, then you're probably immune to most spells and curses," X reasoned.

"Yeah, that. A bit of a pain when a healing spell is needed, but otherwise good."

They came to the crosswalk where they usually parted ways coming from school. "Where's Sandy and Iris?" Zero asked.

"They live right next to the park. My Aunt Daisy, their mother, runs the Apple Grocery there. My mom works here." He pointed to the building next to them. Diamond Hotel looked very classy and expensive. There was a grand statue in front of a woman, possibly from mythology.

"So you live in this hotel?"

"That's got to be awesome."

"Not really. I can't go into the hotel itself, just the lobby. I live way up on the thirtieth floor."

"Weird," X said. "We live in an inn and we can go into any room we want, so long as we don't disturb guests."

"You live in a small family-run business. Not a five star private hotel."

"That's true. So we'll see you Monday, I guess."

"I'm going to walk home with you guys. I only heard about that near kidnapping today, from Hyper. If the Dark Hunters are that desperate to get you, you'd better not be walking alone."

"Well this area is well secured."

"And we have these panic attack alarms," Zero said, showing off his.

"We don't want to get you in trouble like Hyper."

"That's nothing," Ash insisted. "It's best someone else is with you."

They agreed in the end and Ash walked with them. Roll was grateful that he did and invited him in for some hot chocolate. He decided he needed to call his mom and tell her where he was. While he did that, Zero and X were alone for a moment. Zero tapped X's shoulder. "Hey, X?"

"What?"

"I've been thinking of something. We're trying to find a way back home, right?"

X nodded. "Yeah, so we can get into contact with these children and find out what went wrong."

"I was trying to figure it out, about that curse of a thousand fears Forte mentioned to you and my dreams. We're assuming that we swapped bodies, but what if that isn't the case? What if these children are still in this world?"

He thought about it. "That could be. That would explain how a curse put on this child would be affecting me. What made you think of that?"

"You remember earlier this week, when the fire alarm went off?"

"Because of that gun? I still can't figure that out."

They heard someone, probably Ash, coming down the hall. "Later. Ask me about the lake of fire."

It was just before bedtime that they got to talk alone again. "So what about this lake of fire?" X asked.

"I told you before, how I ran into my child self there. But Monday, it wasn't the same dream."

* * *

 

September 24

Zero was half asleep. He was very tired, but his mind was wandering. He didn't get to go out for recess today. Neither did Yammark; they had gotten into an argument, which Yammark started, and Zero bit him. Alia tried to get an apology out of both of them. But Zero couldn't really remember the argument. It was all hazy. That happened sometimes when he bit people. He could remember just before and just after, but couldn't remember what he was thinking when he lost his temper.

He got up to use the bathroom and thought of looking for a fan for his room. He felt rather warm. As he washed his hands, he still felt warm, so he patted some water on his face and neck. That didn't help. He looked in the mirror and noticed when red flames erupted from his body.

Panicking, he stumbled off the stool he used to reach the sink. He watched the red flames around his arms, but couldn't find his voice to call for help. Or scream for it. He felt like doing that.

And then the fire came off him. It gathered form into a flying snake, into the Fire Dragon they had seen before. Only he was much smaller now, perhaps seven feet long and the width of a garden hose.

Zero felt in danger and reacted by thinking of something to defend himself with. He knew Rock kept a gun from the City Guard in his room, having seen him put it away. In the top drawer of his dresser, which was where Zero pulled it out. He came back into the hall and pointed the pistol at the Fire Dragon. He finally had his voice back. "Leave me alone."

"Come here, child," the Dragon said. "I don't mean you any harm."

"You're lying. I won't let you harm anybody."

The Fire Dragon slithered in the air toward Zero. "Calm down, little one. I am here to help you."

Zero lowered his gun. He felt strange, like some part of his mind had been turned down. "Huh?"

"Don't listen to the alien in your mind. Listen to me. I am here to help."

Alien in his mind? Zero wasn't sure what to think of that. "What are you talking about?"

"I know how you feel, how unjust everything has been for you. The others, they torment you despite their fears. The others, they torment X despite his gentleness. No one really cares about you strayed children, you know that. But I do. We care very much what happens to you, the master and I, for you can save our world."

"We can?"

"Certainly. Ice should not last forever. It must be burned. Come, join with me. I may appear small now, but when your soul and the soul of your friend join with mine, nothing can stop us. You can prove all those tormenters wrong."

"How do I do that?" Zero felt a keen need to show everyone that he was strong and good.

"There is a special spell upon you both which will join our souls. Use that tool on X and you will see what I mean."

Zero looked at the pistol. "This? But..."

"Your senses can deceive. Don't see the surface world. See the truth."

"The truth..."

"Now do your part."

The Fire Dragon remained in the hall while Zero went into X's room. He never really understood magic like his friend did. He pointed the pistol at X's head. He would have to trust magic now to do what it was supposed to.

X was asleep. His dreams made him shiver. "Show the world the truth," he muttered.

Zero felt strange again, like the part of his mind that had been turned down had been turned back up again. Hold on, he thought, would anyone who really wanted to help me ask me to hurt X?

No.

That Dragon is an evil creature.

Zero came back out in the hall. The Dragon seemed slightly annoyed. "What is it now?"

He pointed the pistol at the Dragon. "I see the truth. You want to devour our souls, not help us." He pulled the trigger.

Hissing, the Fire Dragon disintegrated into just the flames, which fell onto the floor. Zero felt puzzled and wondered if this was just a dream. But not for long. The fire alarm started shrieking. X woke up with a scream. And there was a commotion upstairs, where the adults had finally noticed something was going on.

Then there was a roar, like a rush of fire. The Fire Dragon put himself back together and he was angry with Zero. Scared, Zero dropped the gun and ran downstairs. The Fire Dragon chased him. Zero's skin caught on fire again and the world seemed to go up in flames.

"Zero, would you wake up?"

Zero opened his eyes. He was on a stone bench in a cave. The cave was lit a warm red color. Sitting next to him was a white haired human. Despite the white hair, his face seemed young. His black eyes especially. They were enchanting to look at. Zero felt this man was familiar, but couldn't put a name to his face. "Who are you?"

"You should know me. Ikari Domino."

"But I... Shadow Palace messed me up."

"I understand. What's bothering you now?" Ikari brushed his hand in Zero's hair in a particular way. It was strange, but the gesture was also something forgotten. Something about it told him that this person could be trusted.

"People at school hate me, or they're afraid of me. They think I'm a monster. But they're the monsters. They keep teasing X. And you know, he gets upset or frightened at the smallest things now. I just know something terrible is going to happen to him. I don't know why, but I know it, and I can't be there to protect him because we're in different classes."

"Right. He should be protected at all times now."

"And then the Fire Dragon tried to possess me again. It tried to make me shoot X. I did stop, but it nearly happened."

"That is terrible. Who knows what would happen if you hurt X again. He might not forgive you this time and disown you as a friend."

"That can't happen! I just want to protect him, but I can't do anything. I'm not powerful, unless I lose my temper, but then I always hurt someone. Maybe I am a monster."

Ikari patted his head. "Now, don't believe those awful lies. The others have been telling you that so you never realize your full potential. But I know what you're capable of, and I've been helping you to achieve it."

"Really?"

"Of course. But those nasty Hunters that you hate so much keep disrupting our progress. I'm truly sorry I can't do anything about them now. But you will be able to defeat them, soon."

"I want to. Then X will be safe."

"Right."

"But what about the Fire Dragon? Can you send him away?"

"We don't want to send him away. You must tame the Fire Dragon."

"Tame? You can tame a dragon?"

"I can't. You can."

"I can?"

"With some willpower, and my assistance, you can overcome any dragon you encounter. And once you have control over dragons, I doubt anyone will have the nerve to harm you or X ever again."

Zero recalled how X had sent Valera off. It would have been a lot easier if Zero could simply force Valera out of their way. Or if he could have made her fly them to Fort Madeline that day. "Okay. What do I need to do?"

Ikari smiled. "Good child. Here, take this book. I know it's a bit large for you, but it has your instructions in it. See this path? Walk that way to an altar and recite the spell within. Oh yes, and you'll need some protection."

"Protection from what?"

"This place is a little dangerous and it is hotter over by the altar. Wear this robe; leave the hood up so nothing gets in your eyes. Something may try to distract you. Ignore every distraction at all costs. Only look straight ahead. Don't stop until the spell is complete. Do you understand?"

Zero nodded as he put the robe on. "Yes. I can do that."

"I know you can. Go along; no hesitations."

Zero took the large book and walked along the pathway. Taming dragons... a person had to be very powerful to do such a thing. And if he had such power, then none of those bullies would dare tease X. This was exciting. He had to restrain himself from running down the path.

His curiosity wondered where he was. No. Ikari had said only look ahead, don't hesitate, don't stop. His hood cut down his field of vision anyways. He watched the path ahead, watched as it turned into some stairs, and stopped at the altar. There was a stand for a book. Zero placed the book there and it automatically opened.

The book was filled with squirming scribbles.

For a moment, Zero was distraught. He had to help X, but he couldn't read this spell book. Thinking back, he recalled that sometimes X had to place his hand on the page to read magical books. Zero placed his hand on the page. The scribbles immediately settled down into letters. He still couldn't understand the words.

He attempted to read the first line. Vyrxia pa utamos hjiukimi uoaio hv'kjhal. His first reading didn't feel right. He tried twice more and finally found a way to speak the nonsense words. With a certain rhythm, it wasn't that hard. Following that rhythm, he was able to recite the rest of the spell. It was a very long one. Zero recited and felt a strange growth of power around him. He wondered what this spell would do once completed.

"Don't do it!" Zero felt startled at the unfamiliar voice. For a moment, he tried to continue. But the person came up the stairs, running. The weight of the footsteps reminded him of the Hunters. In a panic, he turned around to face this new threat.

It was himself, as an adult. And not just any adult. His older self looked powerful, perhaps more powerful than the Dark Hunters. Zero's fear slid away and turned to awe. This person was everything he'd ever wished to be.

His older self took his shoulders. "Don't finish that spell. If you do, the dragon will eat you."

"Dragon?" But he was supposed to be taming dragons.

The adult looked up. Since his hood had fallen down anyways, the child looked up too. Flying close to the ceiling was the full sized Fire Dragon. The one who wished to devour his soul, Zero recalled. Remembering that reminded him of Ikari Domino, one of the masters of Ikari Tower. Specifically, the one who had cursed X with fear.

Those eyes had enchanted him before. Child Zero made eye contact with the Fire Dragon. The dragon was not pleased by this development; he roared so loudly, the path back to shore crumbled. The altar's island shivered and began to sink. The child cried out and went into the adult's arms.

Adult Zero picked him up and dash-jumped to shore. It took his best effort and he almost landed in the fire. Then he began running from the dragon, and the lake. Child Zero looked back and saw the lake rise out of its banks at the command of the Fire Dragon. He was going to try drowning them in fire again. Child Zero looked ahead and noticed a heavy metal door, like in the Monsteropolis wall. It was shutting. It would be sealed by the time the lake of fire hit it. But would they make it in time?

Child Zero clutched his adult self and closed his eyes.

His alarm clock went off.

* * *

 

September 29

"So by that dream, you think the children's souls may still be here."

Zero nodded. "Yeah. You ever dream of something like that?"

X thought about it. "Not quite, although I have been having repeating motifs. And that particular night, I did see this child."

* * *

 

September 24

X was an adult again in an elaborate post maze. There were small walkways about fifteen feet long, each holding five or more posts. Every post was like a hyperlink; it transported one to another walkway when touched. There was a system. By now, X could get to a pathway he wanted by touching the right series of posts.

Also on every walkway was a colorful square box, about two feet high. Touching that related information, and lots of it. X kept searching for information on multiple worlds and crossing between, but he had yet to find that box. Still, he tried every time the post maze appeared.

Tonight he found another area with another maze and one thing different. There was a white post on one of the outer walkways. It seemed out of sequence and was taller than every other post. X made his way to the white post in order to touch it.

The white post led him to a completely different area. This walkway was square, not a maze. Instead of colorful boxes, there were shining bubbles. And child X was sitting in one corner, examining one of the bubbles. He didn't notice the adult right off.

Thank goodness, the adult thought. Now he could get some answers. "Excuse me," he started.

Startled, the child dropped his bubble and vanished. The adult found himself thinking, he can do that because this place is his. He went over to the dropped bubble and touched that.

* * *

 

January 4, XX54

X was reading a story book aloud. Zero watched and listened, occasionally pulling at the pages so he could see the pictures. It was something they did everyday to pass the time. None of the adults seemed to pay them any heed, except complaining if they got too noisy or about dropping off their rations. Zero relied on X for everyday things and X relied on his intelligence and magic. That was all they had.

When the story was finished, Zero said, "Don't worry, my dad will come for us soon."

He still thought that, X thought glumly. Zero wasn't even talking when he came to Ikari Tower, but he believed entirely in his father's rescue. Sometimes he watched out the doorway into the library, hopeful. "I'm sure he's looking for you."

"He is. And then we'll go find your mom and everything will be okay."

X dreamed of his mother a lot, although he couldn't remember her. He couldn't remember anything before the Tower. "It'd be great. But now you have to take a bath."

Zero made a face. "Do I have to?"

"Yes, you need to stay clean and healthy. And don't track water all over the place this time or you'll slip again."

"Okay, I'll put a towel on the floor." Zero went to the bathroom area to bathe.

I'm almost three, X thought. I shouldn't be doing this. But he put that thought aside as he thought better of letting Zero run the water by himself. He might make it too hot or cold.

* * *

 

September 24, XX54

A gun went off, disrupting the memory within a dream. X screamed at the same time the fire alarm went off. Fire? Outside his room? How did that happen?

He had a spell to put out fires. But so far, he'd only put out controlled fires. This one might not work in these conditions... no, he had to try. Despite the fear, X slipped out of bed and cast the fire extinguishing spell. It worked; the red flames went out.

Red flames? It stirred the child's memory banks, but X could pin down no specific memory attached to red flames. Or maybe the child was hiding those memories...

"Boys?" Rock came to the spot between their bedrooms, where the fire had been. "X, what happened?"

"I don't know, I just woke up and there was this fire... I got it out, though."

"You did?" Rock snapped his fingers, shutting off the alarm.

"Yeah, like that," X demonstrated his spell.

"That is the proper one."

Sonya came into X's doorway. "Hey, where's Zero?"

* * *

 

"Zero?" Roll was looking through the house. He was in the building, Rock had sensed that much. But he had stayed with X to help him back to sleep. Sonya had been looking originally, but couldn't find him. So now she was calling up the rest of the inn guests and reassuring them that the gunfire and alarm was an accident.

Had Zero fired that gun? What was it doing loose in the house anyways? She needed to give her brother a stern talk about keeping the gun out of the house or under better security. But why had there been fire? Roll searched where she knew a child might hide.

"Zero, come out," she called again. Still no response. She was down in the first basement. The lower levels were locked, but he could access this area. At first, she found nothing, but on a second walk by, she spotted a glisten of light. A long blond hair had been caught on a door hinge. Roll peered in the room. "Zero."

She soon spotted a blond ponytail peeking out from under a tablecloth. The cloth was partly scorched, probably from an experimental mishap. She felt annoyed that the damage hadn't been reported, but put that aside for now. Pulling back the cloth, she found Zero lying on the ground. Concerned, she touched his outlet. He was just asleep.

Roll chuckled and shook her head. "Why did you fall asleep down here?" she whispered. "It gets cold."

She picked him up gently. He grumbled a bit, but didn't wake up. He stayed asleep as she carried him up and put him back to bed.

* * *

 

September 29, XX54

"So that first part really did happen," Zero said.

"Yeah. Roll told me you were sleeping downstairs and I happened to notice the burnt tablecloth the other day."

"I thought I was just dreaming until she told me about the fire alarm going off."

"I wonder how significant dreams are in this world," X mused.

Roll knocked on the door. "You two should be getting to sleep. It's past your normal bedtime."

Zero got off X's bed. "All right, in a bit."

"I hope you don't dream of dragons again," X said.

"Thanks."


	13. Window of Worlds

October 4, XX54  
Kykital business district

Laguna Trivane was a zoologist, specializing in magic-using species. Thus he was an obvious choice for research missions on the Ice Dragon. Laguna could look over a battlefield and tell precisely what beasts had been involved. However, the Ice Dragon eluded him. She conformed to no known animal behaviors, especially of dragons. It was like she was an entirely new animal.

At the moment, Laguna wasn't thinking of the Ice Dragon. He ran his fingers through his orange hair. He was a native human to this world, although rumor had it that he had elves in his ancestry. His mind was on one of the alien humans in their patrol. She was the most interesting creature he'd ever met.

Ciel came up from behind him. "Daydreaming again, Laguna?" she said teasingly.

"Oh, sorry, lady Ciel," he said, flustered. "I didn't notice you coming into the area."

"So what've you got so far?"

Laguna looked over his tables, to remind himself of where he'd been thinking before Ciel distracted him. "It's consistent with other places. I mean, the distribution and quality of the silver ice. First attack always radiates from the center, as a wave spell. Subsequent attacks are of a berserk nature."

"As if the Dragon gets angry that the first attack didn't work. Something like that?"

"Possibly. Actually, I've been thinking... I doubt that she really is a dragon."

She thought it over. Laguna found himself thinking that it was rare to find such a brilliant mind with a beauty as strong as hers. So why could he never ask her out? "The children report she's a dragon."

"Yes, but children will also call hydras, behemoths, tiamats, dracoliches, and even the occasional chimera dragons. But they are all very distinct and different creatures. Look, she's always on the move, she never hoards, she doesn't seem to care for shiny objects, and she has been observed singing. Her power and magic matches that of dragons, but unicorns do as well."

"I doubt she's a unicorn."

"Dark unicorns are called karkadanns. I agree. But I'm not sure what to call her. Some kind of bird with a dragon's power? Or a ghost? There's always one or two facts that don't fit in with any one category."

"You need to finish what you've got here. We're moving to the central part of Kykital in the morning."

"Okay, m'lady." She started off to find other members of their patrol. Laguna rubbed his face. Okay, he had to start somewhere. "Hey, um, Ciel?"

"What?"

"I was thinking of hacking into that movie theater over there. The evenings have been rather dull. You want to join in?"

"We're not supposed to be hacking movies."

Bad move. "It was just a thought."

Ciel grinned. "Although I'm sure nobody would find us out. I'll ask some others to join in, okay?"

Not exactly what he wanted. But it was a start. "Sure. I'll put my stuff up, then try to get inside."

* * *

 

October 12, XX54  
Light residence

X came running along the hall, book in hand. Rock stopped him as he went by. "Hey, careful there. Don't hurt yourself."

"Um, it's okay, I'm fine," X said hurriedly. He went to the stairs.

"What've you got now?"

"Nothing, nothing... excuse me." He ran up to the second floor.

Roll leaned out of her office. "It's probably just some neat boy hobby he wants to share with his friend. Kids get excited about the smallest things."

"But I..." Rock looked upstairs, seeming a bit lost.

"What is it?"

"I'm trying so hard to be his father, to connect to him. But he just keeps his distance until he needs something. Am I doing something wrong?"

Roll put her hand on his shoulder. "You're doing fine. You see, these two have been on their own so long, they don't know how to get what they truly need. Keep patient and wait for him. I'm sure he'll come around soon."

"I guess so."

* * *

 

X came into Zero's bedroom. On the floor, his friend was recreating aerial dogfights with toy planes. X put his book on the bed. "Look, I've finally got something."

"Great, what is it?"

"The Window of Worlds."

"Window of Worlds?"

"It might allow us to go home. At the very least, it will allow us to contact people in our world so we can confirm what's going on. I'm hoping it will also pinpoint where the children's souls are, so we solidly know where we stand."

Zero put down his planes. "Great. So when can we check?"

"This is more complex then just rune calculations. I need incense, a wide open area, and world locator numbers. I do have the numbers figured out. We can use a park. As for the incense..."

"That shouldn't be hard to find."

X ran his finger along the instructions. "Actually, I have to make my own."

"But you've done that before. I know you have."

He nodded. It was one of his many hobbies as an adult. "And I believe the child has too, because I can fully understand this. I need to get supplies for that. I think the city market will have what I need. Do you have any of your allowance I can borrow? I've got a fair amount saved up, but I might need some extra."

Roll was giving them an allowance for doing their chores. "Well I bought this plane last weekend. But I still have six zenny."

"Then we might be able to pull this off soon. Let's go find Roll."

* * *

 

City Marketplace 4

Roll was busy; so was Sonya. But Rock was off-duty and he agreed to take the boys out to a nearby marketplace. Checking over a list Roll had given him, he asked, "What are you two looking for?"

"I just wanted to come," Zero said.

"I've got a new spell I want to try out," X told him. "It requires some handmade incense."

"Do you know how to initiate a spell that way?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I did it with Shining Light. Although, it took me a lot of trouble to find all the ingredients, since most of them were locked away or in offices around the Tower."

"You'll have to buy all these," Rock said. "But I'll know good deals on them. Do you have your list?"

"Uh-huh." He passed it over; it didn't say what spell it was, just the ingredients.

After a few moments, he said, "Some research spell, I would say. A little odd, but… did you check the incantation and make sure it was authentic?"

"I did. It looks like it should do as it says."

"All right. Still, be careful. Don't hesitate to call me if something doesn't come up right. Well Roll wants me to pick up some salad supplies and herb seeds, so let's see what's here."

The market was a busy place. Some people had balcony gardens and sold surplus herbs, vegetables, and fruits here. Even luckier, there were people who owned top floor apartments and maintained a rooftop garden. It was easy to tell those people, as they had lots of goods for sale. Even tree fruits like peaches, oranges, and apples. It didn't take long for them to find Roll's groceries.

X's list took some more searching. He helped Rock look around for them. Meanwhile, Zero just looked around. Not much really interested him, but it was nice seeing somewhere different.

However, in every crowd lurked potential dangers: kidnappers, murderers, maybe even a hated foe. X found himself sharply aware of that. With some effort, he could shrug it off. It wasn't a visionary warning as he had felt at the zoo. This was just a sense of paranoia. But then it would always return, usually when he encountered an especially threatening looking adult. They were all twice his size. It reminded him that some children back in his homeworld would be afraid of him when he approached. Now, he knew exactly how they felt.

I don't need to be afraid, he told himself firmly. Rock is with us. No one would mess with Rock.

Except for the Dark Hunters.

Taking his hand, Rock said, "It looks like there's an incense dealer over there. They might have some of the ingredients and would be willing to sell small amounts of them."

X tensed a bit, then forced himself to relax. "Um, right. Let's go see."

He was worried that the human seller wouldn't be interested in working with reploids. Some people back home were like that still. But the guy greeted them warmly and didn't seem inclined to cheat them. Rock helped him pick out the right ingredients and quality. Near them, Zero seemed interested in an oil that changed the color of a candle's flame, but Rock dissuaded him from getting that.

* * *

 

October 14

Oak Street City Park

"It's almost warm, isn't it?" Roll asked, smiling. She was in a good mood this afternoon, so had brought X and Zero out to a nearby park. "You may play around here, but don't cause trouble."

"Sure, thanks Roll," X said. "Let's go."

While she sat on a bench to read, the two boys took off. But they didn't go for the playground equipment with some other kids. They went to an open area where there were few people to watch them closely. X brought out an incense burner from his cloak pocket, along with his handmade spell incense. Finding a decent spot, he set it on the ground. "This should do."

Zero looked off to the playground area and felt an impulse to go over there instead. But no, he needed to be here. "Are we going to call attention with this?"

He lit the incense with a tiny fire spell. "I hope not. I'm going to set up the window on the ground, so unless someone walks over here, they probably won't see. It would help if we were really somewhere desolate. But well, nobody's going to let us do that and with the Dark Hunters looking for these kids, it's a bad idea anyhow."

"Right." He watched as X drew a spell diagram in the snow. "So magic is pretty much like algebra?"

"The easy stuff is. The hardest spells like this one are more like calculus."

"So if you have access to that information, how did a child reploid learn it? Was he preprogrammed?"

"I don't know. I wouldn't think so, but who knows?"

Zero shifted his balance, feeling anxious. Something was odd, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Then his mind seemed to shift. "I don't want to leave our world," he said, exactly like a child upset.

X finished the rune and looked up at him. "What are you talking about? You've kept pushing me to leave."

His mind shifted again. "I don't know. It was odd; I just said it. Like both of us denied we were from another world."

X looked at the rune. "Actually, I feel rather odd myself. It could just be this rune, opening up doors to multiple worlds."

"You do know how to target our home world, right?"

"Yeah, I've got the numbers memorized."

"All right then." Zero fought another moment of uneasiness. "Let's go."

When X finished the diagram, he picked up the burner and passed it over the diagram three times. He then set it in the middle and started chanting. Apparently, some portions of magic calculations couldn't be written down. Zero didn't know much of it, but he'd heard X and Rock discussing finding unknown factors through chants, potions, and senses. What X was doing now was finding an unknown portion of the calculation for the Window of Worlds spell. Once he cast it in this long way once, would he be able to call on it at any time without the fuss? That would be handy.

The diagram in the snow began to glow blue. Apparently melting, it turned into a small hole of sorts. The incense burner remained where it was. Curious, Zero stepped closer to see if he could see through that hole. "Hold it," X said, breaking his chant.

"What?"

"This…" he blinked, then swallowed nervously. "Something was wrong with the calculation."

"You said it was right."

"I said it looked right. Somebody must have written it wrong intentionally to keep the uninitiated or something from casting it. But the mistake…" he sounded nervous now.

"What is it?"

"It's opened a hole into a random other world. I… I'm not sure how to close it."

"That sounds bad." Zero looked to the hole in the world. "What's on the other side?"

"I'm not sure. It could be anything, anywhere."

"Like our world? Can I look?"

"It could be dangerous."

"But we should look." Zero came over and looked into the world hole.

It was sky blue straight down. Zero wondered if the other end was on the ground too. If it was, it'd be impossible to tell what was down there. He considered sticking something in it when something moved. He found himself looked into an eye. And such a strange eye too. While the outer part was white, the iris was like a mirror.

Zero's mind felt strange for a moment. The eye was so fascinating. To be that big, the eye had to belong to a large creature. Both thoughts occurred to him at the exact same moment. And then…

He was at the bank of that lake of fire. The child Zero and the adult Zero looked at each other. "Are you really here too?" the child asked. "And not just some phantom from the Shadow Palace?"

"I'm real, and I'm here," the adult said. "You've been here all along, then?"

He nodded. "But what are you doing in my mind and body?"

Abruptly, the vision ended. X was shaking him. "Zero? What's wrong?"

"We… there's an eye down there."

"An eye?" X picked up the incense burner, dumping the burning remains into the snow.

Without warning, the neat little circle of the hole split as a roar broke through. As X and Zero scrambled back, a strange beast came through it. It had eyes like mirrors and a mane of moving tentacles. As the adult had thought, it was a massive beast, with six legs, a lashing tail with a glossy orb on the end, and a shaggy rough coat. As its orb flashed, a volley of lasers flew wildly from the beast, sending others in the park running and screaming. It stomped with its front four legs, causing a row of spikes to shoot up around them. They were trapped.

Maybe. Zero summoned his broom. "Come on, X! Let's get out of here."

But X was frozen with fear. "I-I-I didn't mean to call that up…"

"Of course you didn't." He got on his broom and got it to float slightly off the ground. "Come on."

After a siren went off over the park's sound system, X finally jolted out of it and got on behind Zero. The beast snarled and brought a flickering screen to keep them from escaping. It then crouched down and growled low. Although it remained there for a moment, magic power built at an alarming speed. The orb glowed brightly.

Zero had split thoughts again. The child was scared, but the adult was mentally preparing for battle. 'Let me handle this,' the adult thought. With the child's agreement, he took over fully as activated Dusty. He wasn't quite at top condition, even beyond the smaller stature. But he'd be better at handling this monster now.

"What should we do?" Zero asked. "We have to fight the thing."

Behind him, he felt X tighten his grip. "I-I kn-know." He was trembling.

'He needs your friend in charge, if they're the same way,' child Zero commented.

'We don't have time.' "X, we're in battle."

"R-right." He relaxed some. "Attack that orb. I'll protect us from its charge spell. Angels bless us…"

As Zero guided the broom right behind the monster, he noticed a white shield envelope them. He gripped the small Dusty blade as a joust, going right by the orb. Dark green sparks flew and he felt a jelly-like resistance. "This is going to take a few attacks."

"Keep at it… here it goes."

The beast then jolted up, releasing its stored charge as a wave of sickly green mist. The shield around them hissed, but kept the mist from touching them. As Zero moved Starchaser back into position for another joust, he heard X whispering some chant behind him. He shot back to the orb. This time, the beast whipped its tail orb around too quickly to target. When Zero was out of range of being hit by that, he used the 1000 Needle spell when the tail stilled. The orb still didn't break, but it now had cracks showing.

When X stopped chanting, he tapped Zero's shoulder. "It's an undead evil beast. I don't have a name for it, though. It doesn't exist in this world, or ours."

"Will it help to heal it? It works in video games sometimes."

"It might do something. I can use the best healing spell I know. It's a little strong, though… get rid of that orb and I'll cast it."

"Right." He darted in to slash the orb again. The beast roared in anger this time and attempted to bash them with its tail instead.

While X worked on the spell, Zero kept striking the orb. Eventually, it shattered, sending green glop everywhere. It hissed when it struck the snow, turning it brown. X's shield held, though it was now flickering. Then X sent a bright white ring of light over the beast. It screeched, a sound that grated Zero's ears. The wall of spikes collapsed, perhaps because the beast lost concentration. But then Zero felt his friend slip behind him.

"X!" He dove backwards in time to catch X before he fell on the ground. He seemed to be unconscious.

As the beast snarled, a fire spell shot by them. The City Guard had come to handle the situation. At a time like this, it was better to retreat and leave things to the second wave. Zero flew over to where had come from.

It turned out to be Rock and another Guardian. "Zero, X?" Rock called, sounding faintly concerned.

He'd be very concerned if it wasn't for that curse, Zero thought. He descended by them. "It, it just popped out of the ground." He looked at Rock and then realized that his broom was now working in front of adults. "It attacked us, so we attacked it back."

"Leave this to us now," the other Guardian said, then sent another volley of fire to the weakened beast. "What is that anyhow?"

"The database doesn't recognize it," a voice over their radios said. "But there is a dimensional tear in the area. Get that thing back into its world and seal it."

"Right." Rock looked at them. "Get him on the ground and stay by us."

Zero nodded and landed, putting X in the snow. After it cast a much weaker charge of its sickly green mist, the beast decided it was outmatched. It retreated into the world hole on its own. Rock then went over to seal the hole X had made. 'Should we tell them we made it?' child Zero asked. 'We'd get in a lot of trouble.'

'I agree… we'd better not.' He paused. 'We'll talk later, I suppose.'

'Okay. But you were so awesome!'

Zero smiled.

* * *

 

October 14

Cain residence

Governments that relied on countries no longer worked. Every city now ruled and supported itself. While there was a global government network, its strongest arm was the police and defense unit, the Snow Patrol. They directed trade, maintained alliances, dealt with immigrants and victims, and carried the news, all along their stated purpose of defending the route network and fighting the Ice Dragon.

Roger's current assignment was all about that. Various cities had various forms of governing. For his essay, his subject was reviewing the methods of three cities and picking one he favored. He wasn't sure if he could pick the right one, though. He liked the democratic republic of Monsteropolis, but then one had to admit that things got done much faster in the business-driven Scepter City.

Hearing footsteps stop at his doorway, the teen looked up. His younger brother was there. "Um, Roger?"

He smiled. "Hey Sigma. Come on in. What's on your mind?" He ruffled the reploid boy's hair when he came up to the desk.

"I've wanted to tell you…" he seemed nervous, looking down at the floor. "Something isn't right."

He leaned back in his chair. "What's not right?"

"Well I… I don't really know how to say it. Sometimes it feels like someone else is doing things for me…" his voice trailed off.

"What, like cheating in school? Mom and Dad won't like that. Then again, it's kind of hard to cheat without knowing you're doing it."

"Of course I'm not cheating," Sigma said sharply. He stepped away. "Never mind, it's just stupid thoughts running through my mind. Nothing important." He then left Roger's room abruptly.

Roger watched him go, feeling conflicted. Should he go after his brother or leave him be? There was something wrong. Wasn't there? "What's gotten into you?" he asked softly.

His cell phone then interrupted his thoughts. It was a particular ringtone, which made him smile. His girlfriend. He answered. "Good afternoon, lovely. When can I see you again?" He laughed along with her.

* * *

 

October 14

Light residence

Roll, Rock, X, and Zero were eating dinner together around the kitchen countertop, to keep out of the way of some guests using the dining room. The main topic was over what had happened in the park. "It must have been frightening for you," Roll said.

"It was," Zero admitted. "But you gotta do something if a monster traps you like that."

"It was odd that a dimensional tear appeared there," Rock stated. "At least it's closed now."

"Yeah," X said. So far, neither of them had admitted to being responsible for it.

"What was that anyhow?" Roll asked.

"We're not sure," Rock replied. "Some kind of mix of undead and demon. But since it was from another world, we can't really identify it. David wanted me to tell you, X, that you did a marvelous job with using Angel Guard and that spell boosted High Cure."

"I did what I had to," X replied. "Although casting both in the same fight was too much for me."

"You don't have a lot of aura stamina at your age," Rock said. "Even so, it is quite an effort for a young mage to cast either spell, unless you're moving into the White ring."

"I do know a lot of that kind of spells," he admitted.

"It's a little early to say that," Roll said. Sounding nervous, she looked at her plate.

"White ring is a good one, isn't it?" Zero asked. "Cause they're healers and it's a hard one to enter."

"It is quite an accomplishment to get a White alignment," Rock said. "But then you also have to consider why they're so rare now."

"Why's that?" X asked. "It seemed useful to me."

Quietly, Roll looked to Rock. The older reploid was quiet for a moment, then said, "The last great White wizard that the world knew of was Albert Wily."

"He was a White wizard?" X was intrigued, yet apprehensive.

"There are other things besides healing that the White ring is known for," Rock explained. "It is the ring of life and death. It is the ring for necromancy, raising the dead, healing to the point where opponents can't damage you fast enough, and inflicting illness. With enough power, you can even directly kill a perfectly healthy person. Wily used all that to his great advantage, and killed all of the other White wizards. He discouraged any study into it and to this day, I don't know of any White wizards other than him."

"But he's weakened now, if not dead," X said. "I overheard once that they can't easily leave the Tower. I didn't find out why."

"That's good. You study what you want. I'll be here for you."

Roll smiled at that. "Of course, both of us are, for both of you."

"Well whatever you choose, you'll probably be awesome at it," Zero said. "You did a lot of the damage to that monster."

"You helped too," X said. "You destroyed its tail orb, and I would have been in a lot of trouble if you weren't flying your broom so well."

"Flying on his broom?" Roll asked.

"Zero was doing that," Rock said. "With that green and orange toy broom he has. I couldn't see it too well from my perspective, but it did surprise me for a moment."

Grinning, Zero told Roll, "See, I was telling the truth. My broom can fly."

"I see. Well sorry for not believing you." She patted his head.

"I don't get why I could fly in front of adults then, when I couldn't before. I just had to do it, so I did." He scooped up the last of his mashed potatoes and ate them.

"Then that's why you could," Rock explained. "Magic takes faith and belief in yourself, not just numbers. It also takes some degree of emotional energy, so you're more likely to get a spell right when under strong emotions." He put his fork to his chin, then admitted, "I'm actually far weaker than I should be in magic."

"But you can cast really amazing spells," Zero said. "What kind of spells can you use when your emotions are normal?"

"I was one of the strongest wizards in the world at one time. That was how I could fight against Wily's forces."

After dinner, X was sent up to his bedroom. He was still worn down from his spell use earlier. Zero followed him, getting up in a chair. "Hey X, I've got something big to tell you."

"What's that?" He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I'll try to stay up."

"I've figured out what's going on. Well partly. The children's souls are here, in these bodies. But so are we, the adults. We're all in this world."

"Really? What makes you say that?"

"Well you know how we get sudden headaches at times? I figured out that it's because we have two minds in the same body. We think along the same lines most of the time, but every now and then, you get conflicting thoughts and that inner argument hurts. That, and when we saw that monster's mirror eyes, we saw each other's presence then. The child moved back so I, with more experience, could fight the beast." He shrugged. "He's watching us right now, but we can switch."

"So you're both certainly here." X paused. "I don't know about this one."

"Is my friend scared?" Zero asked. There was no change in his voice, aside from a greater sense of worry and concern. And no change in his posture. But the adult X could tell that this was the child Zero talking instead without being told.

"He might be. I'll try to talk to him. I'm sure he must be listening."

"Yeah. So how'd you get here? He," Zero patted his chest, "was telling me that he doesn't know."

"We saw your friend in our world," X said. "He asked us to help him fight off two monsters, I assume the Ice Dragon and the Fire Dragon. He brought us back here when we said we could. But we didn't expect this to happen."

"Right," the adult Zero said. "We should probably focus on helping out this world for the time being. We're not getting anywhere trying to reach ours."

"I was thinking that myself. It shifts the research we need to do. I'll try to contact my mirror self in the meantime."

There was a knock at the door. "Zero, you shouldn't keep X up too long."

"Okay Roll," he replied, sliding back off the chair.

She opened the door a bit. "And since it's mid-October, you two might be thinking of what you want to do for Halloween."

"Halloween?" Zero looked up at her, curious.

She nodded. "Right, what costumes you think we should all wear and such. We need time to make everything, after all."

"I dunno," he said. "But we got time, right?"

"It'd be good to know in the next few days."

"I don't really care what it is," X said, just before yawning. "I… ahh… whatever's good."

* * *

 

Zero was dreaming. He and his child self were walking in a lightly wooded area. "How'd you become powerful?" the child asked.

"I've always been powerful," the adult said. "I was never a child like you."

"I always wanted to be powerful. You think when I grow up, I'll be as powerful as you?"

"You will be. But no matter how powerful you are, you must use that power for good. Otherwise, you're no better than a monster."

The child nodded. "Okay, like King Gage says. Heh, you know, I used to think X was the most powerful good person in the world."

"Really?"

"Yeah, even though he wasn't much older than me. But it seemed like he could learn any spell he wanted and he knows so much. He still does, but…" he looked down, biting his lip.

"I see. What happened with you when I came into this world? I know we were in that room."

"Well, we found these four keys. They let us go through Shadow Palace without going crazy so long as we kept them. But then, I lost them when an imp thing attacked us. Before I knew it, X was gone and that Shadow Elf pretending to be the Dust Bunny King started harassing me. It seemed like everything there was going to attack me; I thought that plant was going to eat me even, but then I blacked out. When I woke back up, you were there with me, although I didn't understand why I was having such weird thoughts at the time. I guess it must have been pretty weird to you too."

"It's starting to make more sense," the adult said. "But we'd still like to figure out how to get back home, after we do the task we came here for. We have to leave you two here as well, and figure out how to drag our Sigma back." He paused, then got a sly grin. "Maybe we can dispose of him in-between worlds and both of our worlds would be rid of that evil."

The child laughed. "Yeah, that could work! I'll help all I can, but I'm sure my friend X will be a much bigger help, once he stops being shy."

* * *

 

X was dreaming. In this world, he was very aware of dreams.

He was walking in the halls of their home. Or could this be Dr. Light's home, but in the adult's home world? These worlds were similar and distinctly different at the same time. Rumor had it that parallel worlds connected at one point, where the exact same thing happened. Or that parallel worlds were connected by one crucial decision, a stone that split time into two. What was the connection between these two worlds?

He felt a presence behind him. He turned, not certain what to expect.

It was his child self. He was still for a moment, then ran.

"Please wait," he called, trying to not be threatening. "I want to talk to you."

The child kept running downstairs. Eventually, he hit the bottom basement and ran down the hall. X cornered him in a small back room.

"I won't harm you," he said.

"Everything's dangerous," the child whispered.

The dream ended.


	14. All Hallow's Eve

October 30th

Maple Street Elementary

Buses lined the streets at the end of the school day. The chatter was quite noisy as friends attempted to end conversations before they separated for their rides. While X did feel like he was getting better about not panicking over the crowd, he was still tense as he, Zero, Ash, Sandy, and Iris left in a group. The older boys gave him some respect in never mentioning this, and avoiding conversations until they were on the next block.

As it was raining today, they were sharing umbrellas. Sandy shifted his orange umbrella to under a rainspout for the amusement of Iris and Zero. Then he shook it off. "Man, I am so excited for tomorrow," he finally said. "Halloween is always awesome!"

"I thought you hated the morning church services," Ash teased him.

"Well yeah, those are kind of boring," he admitted. "But the rest of the day is excellent."

"Aren't the services in memory of those who've passed away?" X asked, looking up at Sandy. "It's important to remember and respect."

The brown haired boy gave a short laugh. "Geez, you sound like one of the old folks. You seriously need to lighten up, X. Although, that is important. I've always lit a candle for our dad." He quieted, now looking serious.

"Our dad was a hero," Iris said. "But I was too little to remember him."

Ash smiled warmly. "Yeah, he's only person known to have injured the Ice Dragon. Jando went out alone on a foggy day, with a freaking bear trap, and went out to bait her. He then enlarged the trap and waited for her to come. Since he couldn't see the Ice Dragon as an adult, he used the thick fog to tell where she was, then snapped the trap on her. She got away, but they found blood from her at the scene. Although, she killed him for doing that."

"That's really clever," Zero said.

"Yeah, but I thought he was abandoning everybody and called him a coward for it," Sandy said, looking down at the slushy sidewalk. "That was bad of me… but I've decided I'm not gonna let him down. I'm gonna become as great as he was. Although, I'd rather not die to prove that."

Iris giggled, breaking the tension. "That would be bad. I don't want to miss my big brother."

"Of course not," he said, smiling again.

"The marketplaces will all have stands up tomorrow, giving away free fruits and candies," Ash said. "And there'll be a carnival with all kinds of attractions, like the fun house."

"I love the fun house," Sandy said. "That's nearly always my favorite thing."

"Am I old enough to go in the fun house this year?" Iris asked.

"Sure, so long as you're with me," he replied. "It's only for kids though. We'll have to find you guys and take you in too. It'll be worth it."

"A fun house should be safe," X thought aloud. It wouldn't be like the mad castle that was Shadow Palace, after all. It would be constructed to be safe.

"It'll be fun," Zero said, a little more excited.

After parting ways, X and Zero went into the Light family home. "Halloween in this world sounds to be interesting," X said.

Zero glanced around. Seeing no one there, he tugged at X's sleeve. "Hey, can I ask you… have you found my friend yet?"

"Oh… no," he admitted. "I'm not sure what he's thinking even. I'm pretty sure he's with me too, but he keeps hiding from me."

"Well I'd help if I could, so if you need to know anything…"

"Welcome back," Roll's voice called cheerily, interrupting their conversation. She appeared at the top of the stairs. "Could you come up to the third floor? Sonya's been making the costumes and she wants to make sure they fit."

"Okay," Zero said as they both went up the stairs.

Following Roll up another flight, they came to Sonya's room. It was painted dark blue with fish pictures around the wall. "Good afternoon," Sonya said, flicking her gauzy tail. "I'm working on the final touches on everyone's costumes, so I want you to try on the main part to see if I need to make adjustments."

"All right," X said, looking to the bed. There was a pair of white gowns there. "Um, what are we going as?"

"This year, I decided to do angels. I'm working on the final touches on everyone's costumes, so I want you to try on the main part to see if I need to make adjustments."

"Angels?" Zero asked. "That's kind of sissy, isn't it?"

"No, you'll be adorable," the mermaid reploid insisted.

"What if I don't want to be adorable?" Zero countered. It was the child, which made X snicker. "What?"

"Do I have this on right?" Rock's voice interrupted them. They all turned to see him doing the same thing, trying out his costume. Except instead of looking 'kind of sissy', he looked rather impressive with a mock golden breastplate, matching boots and gloves, and a regal look.

"That looks fine," Sonya said, coming over to look at her work. "Does it fit right?"

"Oh, here's the vest part," Roll said, pulling out something that looked like chain mail, except fitted for a child. "Go on and use the bathrooms to try it on. I have to get back downstairs in case some guests come."

"This might not be bad," X told Zero. They went off to go swap out of their school uniforms and into the costumes.

While he was looking over the outfit in the mirror, X felt like this would be decent for a day. Maybe not much longer, but it was just a one day thing. He looked over himself, then back in the mirror. A shadowy being rose up behind him in the reflection; strangely, it held a silver pinwheel. It beckoned him, as if asking to be followed.

X turned around, but there was nothing behind him. When he looked back, the shadow creature was gone. "What did that mean?' he asked softly. "Child, do you know?"

There was no response.

What was that? Some kind of vision? He recalled back when he had first come into this world, crossing the frozen lake. He had seen a brief vision, or so he figured, shortly before the Dark Hunters had come into view. That vision had warned him that a great threat to them was coming. If this was a vision, what did it mean?

Unfortunately, he didn't know. He thought of fragments of deciphering such things, but nothing immediately stood out to interpret it. Perhaps he ought to be careful for the rest of today and tomorrow.

He came out to get a review from Sonya. "There's other parts to the costume, but these will take longest to alter," she told them while checking how tight or loose Zero's costume was in certain spots. "But it looks like you two are ready to go."

"Ash and Sandy were telling us what was going to happen tomorrow," Zero said, smiling. "It sounds fun!"

She laughed. "It sure is. Okay, go get into your regular clothes so I can have these back. Oh, and you might want to help out Roll at the front desk today. We've got some special guests coming in."

A couple of hours later, the guests arrived. There were quite a few of them, as Roll had offered to put up an entire Snow Patrol unit for a few days. "Good afternoon," the blond haired woman said as she led the rest in.

"Hi Miss Ciel!" Zero called; he was kneeling in a chair by Roll. X smiled from where he was doing some paper sorting.

She laughed. "Hello there Zero, X. Good to see you boys well. And thanks for taking us in on short notice, Miss Light."

"I'm glad I had space to take you all," she replied. "Can I get you to fill out a couple of forms? X, I need number 8 and 12."

"Okay." He found those two and handed them to Roll, who checked before handing them to Ciel.

Since she was busy, Hirondelle came over by them. "So how are you boys doing? Being inn servants?"

"No," Zero said. "We're just helping and I'm doing homework."

"First grade stuff, huh? That's the easy stuff."

He nodded. "Yeah, but the spelling's hard. X is in eighth grade though."

His eyebrows raised. "Really? That's quite a leap from no school to senior."

"But he's doing very well there, I hear," Roll said. "Especially when it comes to magic."

"Well that's no surprise. He's quite the little healer."

"I've got an essay on magical beasts to write, but it's not due for a few days," X said.

"Ah. Well if you've got any questions, I'd ask Laguna while we're here. I'm sure he could help."

"Help with what?" the human asked as he came in from outside.

"School work," Hirondelle said.

"I've got an essay on vampires," X told him.

"Ah, vampires." He pulled off a yarn cap, letting his black hair loose. "There's quite a variety, based on their core magics. Good thing is, most of them aren't intelligent and although they're strong in many ways, they're weak in others. We could talk later, but I've got to get my things put up for now."

"I'll get the keys," Roll said, getting up. "You'll all be on the east wing, second and third floors. I don't have any room there assigned, so arrange things as you see fit. Just be respectful, as there's a few other guests on the first floor."

While most of them were elsewhere, Zero looked back to X and said, "Vampires are real here, huh?"

"Rare but real," X said. "I wouldn't be surprised at any of it, though. We did run into harpies, after all."

* * *

 

October 31

Light family residence

After a breakfast of pancakes with strawberry syrup, Zero went back up to his room to change into costume. Sonja had managed to get it in there while he'd been eating. "Did you ever dress up for Halloween?" the child asked. His door was shut, so they were safe to talk.

"Never," the adult replied. "It wasn't a big holiday, so I've never participated before."

"Well I'm glad we can now."

There was the white gown with silver trim. Angels wore that kind of thing, so it wasn't too girly, he told himself. Plus, that was just the bottom layer, padded for warmth, and the rest made up for it. He then had the silver chainmail vest; it was just a plastic thing coated in metallic paint, but it made a metal kind of noise and looked good enough. Sonja had also made him a white belt, which had a place to put Dusty Blade. With that, he was more of an angelic warrior, which was cool enough.

For his feet, Zero put on his usual socks and school shoes, but then put on a cover that made it look like he was wearing boots instead. Then there was a pair of wings with white feathers. The adult noticed that they were synthetic; a clever force field made sure the soft feathers didn't get wet or matted over the holiday festival. Using a pair of clear straps, they hung off his shoulders, spreading out a few inches past them and tapering down to his waist. There was a small hook on them, although he couldn't figure out what to hook it to. Finally, there was a sparkly halo made of silver garland around a wire frame. That was attached to a clear hair band. He brushed his hair and tied it back before putting the halo on. Then he left his room.

X was out there too, looking around. He had an outfit that matched Zero's, also silver and white. "We look awesome!" Zero called.

He turned, then laughed. "Yeah, but your wings are crooked."

Glancing, he asked. "Well how was I supposed to tell? They're on my back."

"There's a hook back there I couldn't reach. Let me see yours." He came over as Zero turned around. "Yeah, I think she meant to attach it to the vest. I'll fix that if you fix mine." He straightened out the wings, then clipped them securely.

"Okay. I got this belt for my plasma blade, but you don't have anything like that." He clipped X's wings in place.

"That's okay," X replied. "I don't have a weapon beyond what's on my armor."

"I might have something," Rock said, coming from his room. "You two look good."

They looked up to see him in his full costume. Slightly different from theirs, it was gold and white with platemail armor as well as a gold crown to attach the halo with. He also wore a red and gold scabbard with a sword inside. Child Zero was awed. "Wow, I thought we'd look kind of sissy, but you look awesome."

"Sonya does good work," Rock replied. "And it's good she let you carry your blade."

"Is that a real sword?" X asked.

"It's not a plasma weapon, but yes." He drew it out, showing off a steel blade with very little decoration. But it looked to be a genuine weapon. "Sometimes you can't beat a good metal blade against certain monsters. Come here, X. I'll have to pull them out of storage, but I'm sure I still have them." He put the sword back and went to his room.

The two boys followed. "What is it?" X asked.

'I think that's my friend talking!' the child Zero thought excitedly. 'He seems a bit different from yours. I'm not sure how, but I think it's him.'

'I know you're anxious to speak with him,' the adult Zero thought back, 'but we don't need to overwhelm him.'

'Okay. I wouldn't want to frighten him anyhow.'

In the meantime, Rock had made something materialize from his computer storage. "A pair of crystal bracers my father made me, when I was a robot and about your size," he explained. "They're a support accessory to amplify and control spells cast by a young mage. If your calculations go wrong somehow, these will help protect against the magic going fully wild. They are many years old, so…" he turned them over in his hands, inspecting them.

"You used those to fight Dr. Wily?" X asked, putting his hands on the desk and watching in interest.

"Yes, until I was given my last body overhaul. Looks like they're in good shape, and they should match. Let me show you how to put these on properly."

Obediently, X gave him his hands so Rock could slide the bracers on. They were blue and silver. A four inch sleeve of material went over his wrist and down his arm, trimmed on both ends with black leather. Over the hands, they had crisscrossing blue straps with silver rings and trim. In the middle of the back of the hands, there was a silvery-white crystal shaped like a pentagon.

X looked over them when they were secure. "These are great. I'll take good care of them, thank you." He bowed.

Rock smiled for a moment. "It's okay. You don't need to be formal with me. We probably should be doing practical training with your spells, or just a review of what you know. These will help."

"Are you all set?" Roll peered in the doorway. Her costume was in white and pink, with a floral crown and trim instead of armor. "You guys look cool."

"Yeah, we get to be guardian angels today!" Zero said, hopping in place.

"To protect the innocent and defend the weak," X recited from the Maverick Hunter-Snow Patrol Code of Honor.

"And to keep monsters far away," Zero winged.

"That would be lovely. We'll be heading out to the church for the memorial service soon, so make sure you have everything."

* * *

 

The memorial service was a little boring to Zero, although X had no problem paying attention. Most of those in attendance were in costume too, even if the costumes weren't exactly appropriate for church. This day seemed to be a special exception and the place was packed. To keep him occupied, Roll gave Zero some crayons and scrap paper to draw with.

After the service, the Light family, Sonya, and Ciel's Patrol joined a potluck at the apartment building Sandy and Iris lived in. Ash and his mother had come too, instead of joining the lunch at the hotel they lived in. "Your dad looks awesome," Ash commented to X.

"Yeah, and I bet anyone would think it was really appropriate for him to dress that way," Sandy added.

"Really?" X asked.

"Of course; Rock is only the greatest hero of reploid kind! But he's never vain about it or anything and just keeps protecting people."

'Like X is in our world,' the adult Zero thought.

"I thought angels were the best costumes for your family," Sonja said. Her costume was like Roll's, but with sea lilies instead of roses. "I just hope my Star is with the angels if he's no longer in this world."

"We haven't found any trace of Star Guise," Ciel said. "He may still live."

"Yes, but… where is he then? I know he'd want to come find me, but…" she quieted and looked at her plate.

"Your husband's name is Star Guise?" X asked.

"We met him," Zero added.

Startled, she looked at them. "You have? Are you sure?"

"Sorta," Zero said, then looked at X.

"It was when we were in Shadow Palace," X explained. "We were helped in finding the exit by two reploids and a cyber elf, Star Guise, Neko, and Xenophon. Star has armor with a black cloak, right? With little sparkling crystals set in it."

"That could be him," she said, starting to look hopeful again. "But getting in there is tough. And Star, well, if he's still in there, he surely won't be well. At least his friends are with him."

"There are people who can get in and out of there safely," Ciel said. "We just have to contact one of them. This could be wonderful, dear." She put a hand on Sonya's shoulder. "It won't be easy helping him, but you'll be together again."

"Yes if he's survived this long." She had a small smile on her face.

Iris put her fork on the table. "Miss Ciel, may I ask you something?"

She looked at the little reploid girl, spending a second to recall her name. "Oh, yes you may Iris. What is it?"

"I heard that your patrol is from another world. Is that true?"

She chuckled. "Not our whole patrol. But some of us are from another world, including me."

"You are?" Zero asked.

"How did you get to this world, then?" X asked, apparently wondering the same as him. Perhaps she knew of a way to help the adults contact their home world.

"Well I really don't know," she admitted. "You'd have to ask Neko and Xenophon, when they get rescued too. You see, our old world got destroyed."

"That's terrible," Sandy said.

She nodded slowly. "Right. Although, I'm afraid there wasn't much left to it at that time. There was a great man in our world…" she paused, glancing at Rock. "But it's a long history with many secrets. Anyhow, he somehow used a powerful artifact to pull as many people as he could out of our world and into a safer one. The effort killed him; he was Neko's friend and Neko was the only surviving witness to that rescue. We know our world is gone." Then Ciel smiled. "But the people of this world have welcomed us warmly. We've been doing all that we can to help them in thanks."

Then it probably wasn't of much use to them. "If we knew they were your friends, we would have told you sooner," X said. "I hope they can be rescued still."

"Everyone who knew them has been praying for their safety, I'm sure," Ciel said.

* * *

 

The others weren't a solid theme with costumes. Ciel's patrol all wore their standard blue and white uniforms; they had just come for a break, after all. Iris was dressed like a flower fairy, in a purple leotard with a lavender tutu and a flower wand; she wore a sparkly purple coat with butterfly-like wings when outside. As for the older two boys, they were both dressed like pirates, but very different ones. Sandy wore a scarlet and gold longcoat, tall boots, and a red fedora decorated with a long peacock feather. Ash wore a patchwork green, blue, and black coat with black pants, shiny leather shoes, and a triangular felt cap.

"I just have a fake sword, though," Ash said, patting his belt. "Sandy's got Dusty Blade like you."

"Yeah!" He pulled out his blade and activated the brown weapon. "I'm captain of the fencing club this year. Too bad you're too young to join."

"But I can join once I turn four, right?" Zero asked. "I'll be in then."

He nodded, putting his sword away. "Then you'll have to carry on my legacy of following Gage's code of honor. I'm afraid a lot of the kids fight just to be cool rather than to be true heroes."

"I'll be a good example."

"Hey, there's the fun house!" Iris said, pointing it out with her wand. "May we go in there now, Mom?"

"We can watch over the three of them," Ash added.

"Sure, go on in," Iris' mother Daisy said.

Dahlia added, "And you'd better not play tricks on them."

"Of course not, Mom," Ash told her.

"It's safe, so you two will be okay," Roll said. "Go on."

"Thanks," Zero said, and the five kids went off to enter the fun house.

Normally, this building was an ordinary store. For Halloween, a temporary maze had been built inside filled with all sorts of strange things. There was a room that looked ordinary, but was tilted crazily so it was hard to walk through. There was a hall of warped mirrors, making them look thin, fat, tall, or fuzzy. In one hall, Iris and Zero were able to go to one end and look as though they were way taller than even the adults.

There was even a room that looked like a normal dining room, but was upside down. There were plates and silverware settings sitting on a table that was on the ceiling. On the floor with them, there was a ceiling fan with tulip lights. Nothing seemed to obey the gravity they were experiencing. "How do they get them up there without strings or glue?" Iris asked, looking up at the silverware. "Or even tape?"

"I'm not sure," Sandy said. "It might be a spell."

"I think so too," X said, checking out a china cabinet. He spotted a dial. "Or an enchanted machine. Look, it has an alternate setting to put us on the ceiling too."

"Really?" Zero asked. "Can we try it?"

"I don't see why not. Sandy, can you reach that?"

"Sure thing." He came over that flipped the dial from 'static' to 'static plus visitors'.

It felt like the room had flipped around somehow. The kids were all drawn to a mostly empty wall, while the main door was shut. Then they were put onto the ceiling where all the furniture was arranged. Laughing, Iris turned around. "We're right-side up in an upside-down room!"

"Don't you mean we're upside-down too?" X asked, smiling.

"Look, we can get through this door now," Ash said, turning to a small red door in the wall. "Maybe it leads to a secret area."

"Would they have a prize?" Sandy asked. "I don't remember anything mentioned about a secret area this year."

"It wouldn't be a secret if they told everyone it was here," Zero pointed out.

"Let's check it out." Ash opened the red door.

What was behind it was odd. It seemed to be a broom closet with nothing in it. However, the back wall had a semi-liquid look to it, a strange lustrous black. "What is that?" Iris asked.

"That doesn't look normal," Sandy said, putting his hand on her shoulder before she walked right up to it.

"I'm not sure we want to mess with it," Ash said, right before a black arm tore out of the blackness and snatched him away.

"Ash!" Zero called, running forward. Then more arms appeared, grabbing the other four children.

The blackness soon dissipated, leaving them in a kitchen with a checkered tile floor. The counters of the kitchen were lined with human skulls and several bloody butcher knives were on display. While it might have been someone's idea of a sick joke, the magic of this place was distinctly different than that of the reverse gravity dining room. "This doesn't seem like something they'd put in this fun house," Ash said.

"We're not in the same building," Sandy told him, looking around worried. "This place feels hostile."

"This place is like Shadow Palace," Zero said, edging towards Sandy.

"It is Shadow Palace," X said in alarm. "I wouldn't forget that aura."

"What?" Ash turned and came towards them. "How'd we end up in Shadow Palace?"

"It was a trap, you nitwit," a gruff voice interrupted them. A strange green lizard came into the kitchen. Instead of being long and thin like many lizards, this guy was round and had back legs made for a kangaroo. It had a large spike of hair growing from its head and a large butcher knife in one hand. The other held onto a glowing metal tin. The lizard grumbled. "Got more of you then I meant. Hmph, it's not like they'll complain about getting more prisoners."

"Hey!" Sandy activated his blade. "You won't get away with…"

The lizard swatted him with his knife, which the boy blocked. However, he couldn't block against the lizard's tail, causing him to crash into the counters. "Shaddup, kid. You ain't got a chance. Besides, you're not one the masters asked for. Sheesh, those big-headed puffballs complain about how hard it is to capture some two dumb kids and I get you within a day."

Although shaking, Zero activated his weapon. "You're not taking us back."

After putting the glowing tin on the counter, the lizard turned to face him. "You think you can beat me? I just kicked your older friend across the room; you don't stand a chance."

"We do together," Ash retorted, throwing a knife that he had snatched while the lizard wasn't watching.

He scowled and tried to return the favor, but Zero was able to move in and jam his blade into the lizard's ankle. Sandy had gotten back up and went to help him, while Ash got another knife at ready. Looking over the creature, X noticed that it had small eyes, but large ear holes. Iris crept over towards him. "I'd help, but I can't do anything," she whispered, her fairy wings trembling some.

"I don't want to hurt them with my spells," he replied. "But I think this guy may be sensitive to noise. Would you try screaming?"

"Um, all right." She looked at the lizard, who was preparing to sweep its knife at the three boys fighting it directly. Then Iris took a deep breath and screamed at a high pitch.

As he thought, the lizard howled in pain and tried to cover its ears instead of fighting back. That gave Zero and Sandy good shots at destroying the beast. Ash made certain it was dead by putting a knife into its forehead. "Good fighting, both of you," he said.

Sandy smiled at Zero. "Yeah, you've been learning well."

"Thanks," Zero said, smiling some.

There came a twinkling from the tin on the counter. " _If you don't mind, would you let me out of here?_ "

"What's that?" Iris said, looking up at it.

"There's an elf in that container," X said.

"I think you're right," Sandy said, taking it. "Doesn't feel like a Shadow elf, though." He twisted off the lid.

A humanoid elf with angelic white wings and white armor came out. His glow was faded, showing weakness or exhaustion. " _Thank you. But… I'm rescued by angels and pirates?_ "

X laughed. "And a flower fairy. It's Halloween… wait," something seemed familiar about this elf. He was a holy elf, and it felt like they had met before. "Are you Xenophon?"

" _Oh, you remembered my name._ " He flew over, so X let him land on his shoulder. " _It's too bad you got trapped back in here._ "

"He's a holy elf, right?" Iris said. "I've read about them. We'll be okay now, right? Cause their aura can protect from curses."

"He looks tired, though," Ash said. "He's Xenophon?"

"Yeah," X said. "What happened to Neko and Star Guise?"

The elf paused. " _Neko's still alive. Our souls are connected. Star should be with him. The Shadow elves have been trying to turn me into a stew lately. I can help you leave here, but if you would, could you come free them? I cannot abandon my partner._ "

"He can help us leave and will do so," X translated for the rest. "But we ought to help him rescue his friends."

"We are in enemy territory, so to speak," Ash pointed out. "We must be careful. Still, we should do the right thing. Where are the others?"

" _I can't control the path there, but I'll show you the way I feel._ " He flew off again and led them to what appeared to be a walk-in refrigerator. Past that, in the infamous ways of this place, there was a murky swamp area with a stone path. Something like rotted vegetation moved through the thick muddy water, if it were water.

Iris went immediately to her brother's side and took his off-hand for safety. Ash took one of the knives and silently offered to walk alongside X, who was torn between dread and a need to be brave so he could act as the elf's translator. Although afraid as well, Zero walked between the pairs determined the show that he was strong enough on his own, even as the youngest there. But the others were there to help. Xenophon ended up back on X's shoulder, as he seemed too weary to fly for long.

" _I've spent months acting as a mental shield to them both, or trying to anyhow,_ " he said. " _But the master of the palace was infuriated when he realized you two were gone. He did something to Neko. I've been ill with worry lately._ "

"I'd imagine," X said softly. Elves were strange creatures in that things like worry and fear could make them physically ill. Or even kill them.

Xenophon shivered. " _I have been weak. I should have simply given you an exit. But my bond…_ "

"It's okay," X said. "They've helped us before, so I'd like to help them."

Ash tightened his grip. "X, look at that."

"Huh?" He looked ahead.

The swamp area blended into a rocky wall that had white torches along it. A tapestry hung off the wall, depicting a strange event. In the center, a blue dragon and a red dragon circled around each other, preparing for battle. On the edges were various scripts, including, 'Bearer of endless winter and bearer of endless summer, come into the world and battle for your corrupted powers. All involved are corruptions of the pure original, modified for the sake of vanity, false ownership, and perversion. Add to the complexity, overbearing the false idea with its own weight, so as to collapse it to where even those who watch will turn away. All such perversions of originality should be persecuted into ridicule and shame.'

"What does that mean?" Iris asked. "It has a lot of big words."

"I think much of it is nonsense," X said. "But it talks about the Ice Dragon and the Fire Dragon as the bearers of endless winter, and endless summer."

"We want seasons to go back to normal," Sandy said jokingly. "Not get re-cursed."

" _Neko is nearby, behind a door,_ " Xenophon said. " _I'm not sure where the door is, other than near here._ "

"Xenophon says there's a door nearby," X said. "But it must be hidden, because he's not sure where."

"Maybe it's invisible," Iris suggested, looking over the burbling marsh. "Oh, look at this." She reached over to take a silver pinwheel toy.

The pinwheel represented a child's distraction, X realized. This trap was what his vision yesterday had meant. Still, that couldn't be good. "I wouldn't trust that," he said.

"Anything could be dangerous," Sandy said. "That's what people say about this place."

"Oh, I see." The silver pinwheel then shivered, and a large blobby monster appeared. Iris screamed and jumped closer to her brother. If she had taken it, it might have gotten a free chance to eat her.

The monster slurmped onto the walkway. "Foolishness," it said. "Why did you fall for that trap? I want to be the one to eat you."

"Are you the closet monster that keeps bugging X?" Zero asked spitefully.

"Yes, and now I will eat you all!"

In a moment of fright, X cast the Shining Light spell. "Stay away!"

It howled in pain, but remained. Zero ran over to attack it. Meanwhile, Sandy got between it and Iris. "No way, you can't be a closet monster," Sandy said. "You're a Glormp."

"Yeah, Glormps can't live in cities," Ash added. "You must always have boggy grounds, or grounds you can make boggy, like here."

"So you've been bluffing me?" X asked.

"Fine, so I was," the monster… a Glormp, said. "I'm still going to eat you here."

"You can get rid of it by fire," Sandy suggested. "But we'd better get away quick."

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

"Okay," X said, casting a fireball. He and Ash got back, along with the other three. The Glormp went up in green smoke and flames (even thought X had cast an orange fireball). In doing so, the stench of it got worse, like burning rotted eggs and cheese. When it finally blew up, part of the stone walkway had been destroyed, showing a wooden door.

"Ick," Iris said, wrinkling her nose and putting her free hand over it.

" _That's the door we need to reach them!_ " Xenophon said.

"Okay, let's get this open," X said.

It was heavy, but the five kids managed to pull it open together. Past it was something like a cellar. A dry cellar, thankfully. A reploid in red armor stood up as they came in. Neko looked over them worriedly. By him, Star was curled up against the wall. Yellow bands of energy were tied to his wrists and ankles, but nothing else seemed to be holding him down.

Xenophon flew over to Neko. " _I managed to get free, with their help. X and Sandy here are both skilled in magic, so they should be able to do something about Star_."

Neko nodded, but didn't say anything.

"What's tying him down?" X asked.

"It seems…" Sandy started over, but Neko grabbed his shoulder. "What?"

" _Something in this room powers those binds,_ " Xenophon explained. " _But if you go too close to Star, they zap him. Whatever it is I can't sense, but we have to find it before we can free him. Oh, and Neko can't talk anymore._ " X explained what Xenophon had said, then asked why he couldn't. The elf shook his head. " _I don't know what exactly, but it was punishment for helping you before._ "

"Well those binds are electric in nature, I can tell you that," Sandy said. "They're tied to that panel, but I can't tell where the power is coming from. Normally, you'd feel the system, however lightly."

"I'm afraid I can't help you much with that," Ash said. He moved aside to sit on a ledge so the others could search.

The binds flickered. "I think you can help, Ash," X said. "Maybe your magic deaf state is affecting the source. Would you run your hand along that ledge?"

He smiled. "Odd, but okay." He did so while X and Sandy watched the chains. When they found the right spot, X was going to tell Zero to use his blade there. But Neko seemed to have the same idea and activated his green blade and ran it down through the ledge. There was a pop and the binds vanished.

With that danger gone, X went over and examined him. "He really needs to get out of here and to a hospital. This is beyond what I can do."

Silently, Neko went over and picked Star up to carry him over his shoulder. Xenophon went over to a flat wall. " _Okay, I'll open an exit gate. I think… Star needs to get out, and so do you and Zero. This may be a bit much for me. Ask Ash to go last and pick me up if I collapse._ " Then he started on drawing a mystic circle on the wall.

"Okay. Ash, you need to come through last; take Xenophon if he gets exhausted."

"Sure enough," he replied. "Still, let's go quickly."

" _Where did you come in at?_ " the elf asked.

"2771 Jackson Avenue in Monsteropolis," X answered. "It's a department store normally, but was a fun house for Halloween."

" _Doesn't sound fun if it led you here. Okay, go!_ " He activated a glowing white ring, similar to the one that had gotten them out before.

Neko took Star out first, followed by X and Zero, then Iris and Sandy. Ash managed to get out with Xenophon right before the red door in the upside-down dining room decided to collapse into dust. Unfortunately, the gravity decided to return to normal for them, so they soon fell back to the regular floor.

"Which way do we go to get out?" Iris asked. "I don't remember."

A human woman abruptly teleported into the room. "Oh, there you kids are. What happened? We lost track of you three hours ago." She looked to Neko, who was still holding onto Star. "And what are you doing in here?"

Ash came forward to speak for them all. "M'am, there was a red door in here that drew us into Shadow Palace. We brought them out with us; they should go to a hospital."

She nodded. "Okay. But, that place? You kids probably should too." She tapped a radio headset and asked for an ambulance.


	15. Of Aliens and Natives

October 31st

St. Jude Hospital

The five children were scanned for residual curses, problems, or injuries, but they all came out clear. X was quiet. While he felt nervous too, the child Zero was starting to feel safe, both in being with his alien adult self and being back in Monsteropolis. Roll had come in, along with Daisy and Dahlia, the mothers of the other three. "Well thank goodness you three got out quickly," Dahlia said, sitting by her son Ash. "It was a strange random thing to show up, though."

"Not really," Zero said. "They were trying to capture me and X again. We're sorry."

"That's not your fault," Roll said, patting his head. "I'm glad all of you are safe."

"What about Mr. Star and Mr. Neko?" Iris asked. "Are they gonna be okay?"

The adults were quiet, so X spoke some. "They've been in there for at least five months, probably longer. Even with Xenophon's protection, it won't be easy for them to adjust back…" he looked off somewhere random.

After an awkward moment, they heard footsteps approaching the lobby where they were. Ceil came in, followed by Neko and Xenophon. "Roll, there you are. Excuse me, but would you have an extra room for Neko? I'll cover any expenses needed."

"I'm sure there is," she replied. "Is he going to be joining your group?"

Neko shook his head while Ceil answered. "No. He's a special officer and is allowed to move between patrols as needed. I'm not sure how long he'll stay; he and his elf need time to settle back into the normal world."

"I understand. And I'm sure I have forms for assistance from the Snow Patrol, if that will help."

"Is Mr. Neko talking again?" Iris asked.

"I'm afraid not," Ceil said, looking at her friend. He simply shrugged.

* * *

"Ms. Guise?" The doctor looked into the waiting room, where about a dozen people were being patient.

She got up and nervously adjusted her tail fins. She had changed out of her angel costume for this, as she didn't want to confuse Star more. "How is he?" she asked as they left the room.

"His physical symptoms should be fine after a couple of days of good care," he told her. "His mental state is the problem. He's suspicious and is treating everyone and everything as potentially dangerous. It's typical for someone who's been trapped in the Palace, but with his history, it's going to be especially difficult for him to recover."

She knew that much. Some thirty years ago, Sonya had married a kind and cheerful man who was always an optimist. But over the years of his service in the Snow Patrol, he had encountered one problem after another, including an unhealthy amount of curses. It was often hard watching him struggle. Still, she stayed with him and supported his recoveries, as sporadic as they were. Good friends like Neko and Ceil had helped immensely. But now, he might have to leave his career for good, no matter how much he loved it.

"He does need your help," the doctor said. "But he will have to relearn to trust you. I can recommend a joint therapist for you both. You'll need the support as much as he does."

"I see, thank you." She twisted her hands together. "I do have good friends I'm staying with. I'm sure they'll accept him readily."

"That's good." He paused outside a door. "He's in here. We have him restrained until we feel he won't take a sudden violent turn. Use the nurse call button if you need anything."

"Okay." She went inside.

They had taken him out of his armor and put him into a pale blue gown. With his eyes closed, he was muttering something under his breath. He wasn't struggling against the restraints; in fact, he showed no signs of doing so. Any marks on his arms seemed to be old markings of chains or rope. Perhaps he'd been restrained so long he'd given up on escaping.

"Star, I'm here," Sonya said.

His eyes snapped open. Looking at her, he made some fists and seemed frightened. "You again? What do you want this time?"

"It's me, Sonya," she said. "You've been rescued from Shadow Palace."

He closed his eyes again. "I know who you're trying to be. You won't ever be her, though."

Although that stung, she had expected something like that. His life must have been one long nightmare the past few months. He just hadn't realized he was awake yet. When she placed her hand over his right fist, he winced. "Why do you say that?" she asked, hoping for a way to prove herself.

"She's not cruel like you are. And you lie so much. You can only guess at what is between me and my wife."

That might help. But what would convince him? "Like how we met in the summer you were doing your diving training?" She smiled some. "And how you said were surprised that there was a mermaid reploid, but was just saying that because you were surprised I wasn't wearing any armor. Or anything."

He looked back at her. "That was…"

"June 27th of '21. In the morning. And I said there was nothing wrong with how I was, because I was built that way and I lived how all the other mermaids lived. And then at our first beach date, we were going to a party and you asked me to wear an orange bikini top with a ruffled flower decoration. I was joking about how I liked the mermaid life, but agreed to wear it because I liked being with you."

Star's hands relaxed out of fists, so she put her fingers between his. He still didn't seem too sure. "Sonya? But then," he thought. If he were coming up with some test, she'd best let him. "What was kept in the green glass vase?"

Anyone else would have called that a strange question. But she knew why he had asked that question. "The three roses made of pink paper lace, green ribbons, and little baby booty charms. I had made two and you did your best at making a third, but it took you a whole week where I spent one afternoon. We agreed they would stay until we had our own child. I keep them in my bedroom now; I've been waiting for you to return. I didn't want to give up on you. And here you are, finally come back to me."

"No one could guess that." He squeezed her hand. "But what are you doing here? Did they capture you too?"

"No. You're out of Shadow Palace, my love. We're in a hospital at Monsteropolis. Neko and Xenophon are out too; they're visiting with Miss Ciel, I believe."

"You may think that, but…" then he shook his head and smiled. "Well so long as I'm with you again, and it's really you, I'll keep them from harming you. You'll be safe."

He knew it was her. The rest could be taken with baby steps. "I know. I trust you."

"Neko's around too, huh?" His eyes drifted off. "You know, I think he's not actually Neko. But then, he is a friend, so let's not be rude to him and his elf."

* * *

? ?

The world exploded. Ceil closed her eyes. Not that it would do anything against a whole world collapsing. But she felt nothing.

"Ceil? Are you okay?" Zero's voice reached her.

It was puzzling. "Zero?" She opened her eyes. Zero was kneeling beside her. "But, what happened?"

"Were you harmed?"

"No, but there was a sudden explosion." It was black all around them, like being in an angry storm cloud. Wisps of black stuff drifted around their bodies. "Where is this? What about Copy X, why did he…?"

"I'm not sure. I used the Crystal Sphere. I think he used his weapon at the same time, or just before I did, because our world is gone."

"This place is so strange. I wonder what it is."

"We weren't able to stop him."

Ceil looked up at Zero. "Wait, you said… our world is gone?"

"Destroyed completely. I saw it. Every atom was dissolved. But the Sphere somehow saved us."

"Everything is gone?"

"I'm afraid so."

"That can't be," Ceil said sadly. She started crying.

Perhaps because no one else was there… Zero held her and cried as well.

…

"I can't get a reading on this black mist," Ceil said.

At some point, they had started walking. "Either I can't see through it or there's nothing else," Zero said. "I'd think I was blind, except you're here."

"What do you think will happen to us?"

"I don't know. I've never experienced something like this before."

They were quiet.

Zero took her hand. "You don't have to be afraid. I'll protect you."

"I know."

…

"I've lost track of time," Ceil said.

"I don't know any more than you," Zero replied. "My internal clock acting up."

"I'm not sure if I should be tired, or keep walking."

"I agree."

"This seems to be a place of nothing."

"Except that," he pointed ahead.

"That's… a green light."

"It's better than nothing. Come on."

Walking that way, they came upon a green colored gate. In the gate was a sphere about a foot across. Not like the Crystal Sphere. Rather, it was like a world you could hold in your hands.

"It's odd."

Ceil worked a screen on the side of the gate. "It's… it leads to another world. With reploids even."

"Another world?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure how it works, but…"

"Let's try it."

She nodded. "If it's this gate, or staying here, the gate."

They stepped through the world gate. It became cold and snowy. As far as the eye could see, there was snow. Occasional dots of green showed evergreens, but other trees and plants were dead and iced over. A road was before them.

"It's rather pretty," Ceil said.

"Watch out!" someone yelled at them.

Zero found the danger by instinct; strange opaque creatures, shaped like foot long dragons. He summoned the Boomerang Shield and blocked a stream of blue energy. Icicles began to form on the shield's edges. Bursts of an energy weapon came flying by, so he handed the shield to Ceil. "Careful."

She nodded and took it from him. The dragon creatures flew around and tried attacking from a different angle. Zero activated his saber and thrust it right through the nearest one. It shattered like glass. Another dragon creature shattered close by. A third tried to attack Zero, but met the same fate as the others.

A strange reploid with black skin and black armor studded with crystals dashed over to them. All the dragons were dead. He had some sort of staff, but powered it down. "Nice work, Neko."

Zero shut off his saber, but remained at ready. "Neko?"

He looked flustered. "Oh, sorry. From a distance, I thought you were Neko."

Ceil looked at the strange creatures' remains. "What are those things?"

"Icicle dragons. So who are you and what are you doing so far out?"

"I'm Dr. Ceil, and this is Zero. We came here through some gate."

"A gate from where?" he asked skeptically.

"We don't know," she admitted. "Our home blew up. We walked through a place of black mists."

"Black mists, you mean the Shadow Palace?"

"Could be."

"Where did you come from?"

"Our home world blew up," Zero said. "Atomized, if you can believe it."

The black reploid shrugged. "The Shadow Palace is a heavily enchanted place of illusions. We can take you to safety and help you figure out what's actually happened."

"Who are you first," Zero said.

"Star Guise, the sorcerer," he said. "I am with the Snow Patrol."

"What's the Snow Patrol?" Ceil asked.

"We work the snow fields, helping citizens through the dangers and trying to eliminate the Ice Dragon and her demons. Like those icicle dragons. Come on Neko… sorry, I mean, Zero, Dr. Ceil. Kykital is an hour away by sled."

…

The city of Kykital took them in and instructed them. This was a world cursed by eternal winter, covered in ice and snow no matter what time of year it was. There were many strange dangers: creatures born of nightmares, monsters that could not be seen by ordinary means, and oddest of all, magic. Cyber elves were here too, but because of the magic present, they weren't threatened with death every time they used their powers.

And there were reploids here. These reploids got along with humans very well. There seemed to be no overt threat to their kind here. There were threats like the Ice Dragon, but that applied to everyone. And oddly enough, Zero's maker, Albert Wily… he was around. An intangible threat and rumor, more legend than anything else. Thomas Light was also recent in world history.

"Are you here as a native as well?" Ceil asked one day.

"I'm not sure," Zero said. "What information I can find seems unreliable. It's worse than in our home world. At least there I knew some facts. I wonder if X is here."

"That would be strange, Neko. For there to be mirrors of ourselves here."

"It could be so… Hey, what'd I say about calling me Neko?"

Ceil chuckled. "I'm joking with you. Although an awful lot of people call you Neko now. I wonder who he was."

"Me, perhaps. Except with a tail?"

And slowly, their old friends passed over to this world. Almost all the Resistance members managed to find their way out of the black mists to the snow cursed world and Kykital. So it was true. Their world was vanished, but some people managed to cross over to relative safety.

There were other strange facts, including reploid families. Reploid marriage was an accepted and common thing here. As were children from those marriages.

Star Guise had helped them settle in immensely, although he kept calling Zero Neko. One evening, he invited them over to meet his wife, Sonya Chi Guise. They were like any newlyweds that Ceil had met, in love with each other and life, enjoying every moment of it. Ceil decided to ask her, "Excuse me for asking, but who's Neko really? We haven't met him yet."

Zero and Star Guise were over discussing weapons. Sonya looked at her husband sympathetically. "I can see how he would mistake Zero for Neko, from a distance. It's a rather sad story. They were best friends almost from the moment they were born. Neko was a cat-human crossover reploid; only he had a rather large tail, squirrelish. He was a fine warrior and wonderful friend."

"Did he use blades?"

"He was a master swordsman. Neko and Star were assigned to the same squad on the Snow Patrol, and both served loyally for ten years. One day when they were in the field, they were attacked by Shadow Imps."

"Shadow Imps?"

"They're more dangerous than you would expect. They're little critters, three foot high at most, and almost all of them look emancipated. And apparently they make the most awful racket of squeals and beeps. The dangerous thing about them is they attack in large numbers and use psyche spells."

"I can see how that would be difficult."

"Star Guise came back… Neko didn't."

"That's terrible."

"What's most terrible is that the Imps used a confusion curse on Star. He's convinced that Neko is still alive, out in the field. You can tell him otherwise, but he won't believe you. And on the few occasions he does understand what happened to Neko, he has nervous breakdowns and can't even take care of himself. When he comes out of it, he's still convinced Neko's out there somewhere."

Ceil watched the two across the room talking easily, as if they had been friends for years. It was a bit odd seeing Zero making a new friend so fast… but it was good. "I see. So now he thinks Zero is Neko, I suppose."

"If you could explain that to Zero, I'd be grateful. I'm afraid that there's no way to talk Star out of his belief, if he does think he's finally found Neko. At least, not without risking Star's state of mind."

She nodded. "All right, I'll see if I can talk to him about it."

"That's great frittles ski tapping."

Ceil looked at Sonya, worried. "What was that?"

Her gaze looked lost. "Huh, what then?" She blinked and cleared up. "Oh, sorry, but you know how it goes." She smiled proudly.

"Actually, I don't. You said something odd, like ski tapping…"

"Right, you're not from this world. Yeah, I know my mind's wandering."

"Is it a problem? I could help."

"Oh, no, it's no problem, it's a wonderful thing. I've got a third intelligence."

"Third intelligence?"

Sonya tapped her forehead. "Yup. A third intelligence in our family… geez, I have a baby."

"Really? That's wonderful."

"Isn't it?"

"I never thought about it in those terms, but I can see it… sort of. Your baby's in your mind?"

"Yeah, she's here. Her mind is, anyways. Eventually, we're going to see an engineer about building her body, but it's best to let the child stay in the mother's mind for a while. It helps with emotional stability."

"It would."

She giggled. "But having her in my mind makes me act weird sometimes. Her mind taps at mine. I can feel her in there all the time now, but on occasion she taps somewhere and I say nonsense for a bit. You understand now, Miss Ceil?"

She nodded. "I do. We never had reploid birth like that in our world. But I can see the advantages of working that way…"

"Aw, I feel sorry for those poor fellows. I'm a second generation; Star is third."

Unfortunately, their daughter crashed before she could be completed.

_April 7, XX54_

_Kykital_

Five years later, the Ice Dragon attacked Kykital. Sheets of silver ice appeared on the streets and the shield was shattered. It was no longer safe. The Snow Patrol ordered Kykital evacuated.

There was a problem. Star Guise was local Snow Patrol and thus was one of the last to leave the city. Sonya had to leave in one of the first waves, as they ordered all women and children out then. They said it was all right, but still… Zero felt uneasy. Xenophon too. The elf kept looking over the last caravan postings, wondering if everything would be okay.

Zero was originally slated to leave with Ceil and Sonya, as one of the guards of the caravan. Everything should have been okay; the last caravan would be the last of the City Guard and Snow Patrol. It still bothered him. Something didn't feel right.

So on the day he was to leave, he refused to go. "I'm sorry Ceil, but they'll be cutting it close. It's best they have a secure caravan, and the only way I'm going to be satisfied with it is if I'm going with them."

Ceil nodded. "I understand. I was worried myself. But if you're with them, there'll be no problem, right?"

He smiled. "I'll do everything in my power to make sure your husband gets to you safely," he told Sonya. Xenophon laughed like little bells.

Star nudged him. "Hey, don't say it like that!"

Sonya giggled. "Thank you Neko, you're a dear."

"Then we'll see you in Monsteropolis in a month," Star said.

"It's still too long." The two of them kissed. "Take care of yourself."

But the men never made it.

_May 12?_

_Shadow Palace_

"Hey, it's you."

Neko opened his eyes. His hair felt like dumbbells were weighting it down. "Ugh. Who is that?"

"That's how you greet me?"

In front of him, his old friend X hovered. Rather, the third copy of X hovered there, smiling darkly. "What are you doing here?" Then he thought of what he'd been doing. "Where's Star?"

He laughed. "So you've been caught up in that fantasy world as well? To think you would fall for that."

"Where is he, you damn copycat!"

"Look on the wall, dimwit."

Neko did. Star was chained to the wall, looking very miserable. He turned back to Copy X. "But you died with our world."

"What are you talking about? I used the power of that Black Sphere to vault myself into a position of power. And now I am Shadow Master, Lord of Shadow Palace. I have real magic, whereas you are now stuck, literally, where you are. In my realm."

"You're still only a poor copy."

The fake X glared. "I suppose you have forgotten that you are a mere copy as well? Only now I have become more powerful than the original X could ever have dreamed of. Not that he had much of an imagination when it came to true power."

"It only seems to have gotten rid of your stuttering."

"You best stop that right now. You are my captive, forever. As for your silly friend… I'll let you two stay together, so that you don't forget what you failed to do."

Neko looked back at his new friend. Star Guise had lost everything…

Perhaps even more than Neko had lost in losing his world.

_Shadow Palace… much later_

"In the end, I am your captor and you can do nothing about it. And once I take these children back to their proper place, I'll be granted more power without a doubt."

Neko smirked. "What children are you talking about?"

"You dimwit, those…" Copy X looked down. The two children were gone. "Why you…!"

"It doesn't matter what you do to me. I will not allow you to harm innocent children."

"It doesn't matter?" he screeched. "Are you certain of that?"

"Yes."

Copy X's eyes flared in anger. He cast a spell. Neko was now chained to a floor in a different room. Copy X stomped across the room and opened a hidden door. Out of it, he pulled a small clear crystal globe. He slammed the door shut and it hid away again. "So nothing I can do would make you regret doing that?"

"Nothing."

But as he spoke, Copy X cast a spell. Neko felt a hot flare run through his throat. It condensed and it felt like a demonic hand was choking him from the inside out. Then there was a sharp pain just before the hand pulled out of his mouth. "So what do you think of that little spell?"

Neko was going to ask, "Is that it?" But he found he couldn't speak.

"But making you silent isn't enough. Those children were very important and they should have stayed in Ikari Tower. Leaving you with Star Guise was sufficient then. Now I will make certain that is all you can think about."

Copy X then cast his demonic hand into Neko's mind, completely messing up his memory. Of course, he'd lived so long; there were so many memories…

…

Neko had a bit of a guilty conscious, over something he'd not done, but had nearly done. When he and Ceil had realized that their world was gone, and there seemed to be only them left, and they were both crying… he'd almost kissed her.

But that would have been a horrible time to admit to that secret. Neko had put his lips to her hair; that was all. He still felt it was wrong to have thought it at that time. Of course, it had been a very emotional moment, and he'd been harboring these secret desires for some time.

It had been a year now that they had been in this world. He'd accepted that his name was now Neko and he worked in the Snow Patrol with Star Guise. Star was a great guy, a very good friend. Now he wondered if this was a good time to admit to Ceil that he could be in love, but he couldn't be certain until he tried.

But did he want to try? Humans had a limited lifespan. Ceil was still young, but the thought of losing her now was terrible. If he admitted his feelings, how much worse would it get? He had known of a reploid who had tried such an affair. Old Andrew had been quite a character. But he seemed to lose himself in the past often, and he even admitted the pain of losing his human wife had been terrible.

"What're you thinking about, Zero?" Ceil asked. Sometimes she still called him by his old name, usually when they were alone.

"Nothing. I have to go soon. Our patrol will be gone for some time."

"I heard about it from Star. Be careful out there."

He nodded. "Certainly."

He put it off. Again.

…

The memory vanished. Copy X stood over Neko, now curled on the ground. "Now you will cooperate with me, won't you?"

* * *

November 1, XX54

Light family inn

It was very late at night or very early in the morning. The skies were dark and the building was quiet. In spite of this, Ceil had woken up and wasn't ready to go back to sleep. Her elf Criore had awakened too, although she was yawning as she rode on Ceil's shoulder. " _Did I wake you up or did you wake me up?_ "

"I don't think it matters," she replied as she entered a common room of this area of the inn. There was a small kitchen set up here, so she pulled out a mug for hot tea. "We shouldn't stay up too long, though. Tomorrow… I mean, today is going to be busy, what with the discussion panel and preparing to leave."

There was a chime of a different elf speaking. When Ceil turned, she saw the white glow of Xenophon. How had she missed him in this dark room? The lights then came on. Neko was in the room too. From the few things on a sidetable, they had been there for a while.

" _Yeah, we're still helping on the investigation of Kykital,_ " Criore said, answering some question. " _There's three other groups there, so we took a break._ "

"There's some interesting signs there," Ceil added. "Some of the silver ice has spread patterns like fire. It adds a new side to the Ice Dragon."

Neko nodded. He'd always had a quiet distance to him, although it had seemed to lessen over time. His silence this time seemed to be permanent. As usual, his elf Xenophon spoke instead.

But that had to be translated. " _They're actually interested in investigating Shadow Palace now,_ " Criore said. " _It seems like Copy X is the new Master there._ "

"Copy X? That's not good." She felt anxious, as she always did when thinking on that reploid. She had helped to develop him.

Neko came closer and patted her arm. She knew what he meant; he wanted to say that it wasn't her fault things had happened that way in their old world. On some level, she knew that. But she never fully shook that guilty feeling.

Xenophon spoke again. " _They just have the problem of going there intentionally and making their way around freely. A holy elf's power can help shield the madness it induces, but won't help much for navigating._ " He said something else, which caused Criore to flicker pink with embarrassment. " _I don't know that._ "

"About her powers?" Ceil guessed. "We're not sure. It may be luck related, or something not easily seen. Nobody wanted to bond with her because not even her queen mother could say what her power was. But I felt someone should give her a chance and got along with her quickly. As for your quest, I'm not sure. You can ask the guys in the Patrol tomorrow; enough of them have bonded with elves that you should be able to get by."

To that, the elf made an agreeable chime and Neko nodded. They may have been planning to do so, although maybe not so soon.

In that case, "There is something I want to ask you about, Neko," Ceil said, being serious but trying to quell nervous flutters in her stomach. "You've seen the little boys that live here, haven't you? X and Zero?"

They agreed, with Criore translating, " _They seem to be mirrors in this world, similar but with a different history than your old world._ "

She nodded. "Right. But I've seen the DNA profile of Zero and he's just different enough… is he your son? He's three years old and I remember you acting unusual around that time. Worried about something."

" _That's not possible,_ " was the elf's reply. " _He hasn't been involved with anyone like that._ "

Neko tapped the aura of Xenophon, who glanced at him. They exchanged nods, then went on.

" _He was worried about me at the time. I was gravely ill. But that's…_ "

After a moment, Criore added, " _He's too uncomfortable talking about it, so can we drop it for the time being?_ "

"All right," Ceil agreed, to the elf's relief. "I was just worried. Those boys have a strange story behind them and if you were involved, in that kind of way, I thought you should know about it. So now I have no clues as to where Zero's real family might be. There's no missing child report on him. I can't even find a proper birth certificate in his records. All well. Good luck in your venture."

He nodded, then went back to what he had been doing, maintenance on his personal gear. Ceil made her cup of tea, then went back to her room to try sleeping.

* * *

As the inn was in an old home, there were quite a few places that acted as hidden lookouts. It was never optimal, but Neko found a seat on the second story that overlooked the entrance hall. Sitting there quietly, anyone passing below didn't usually notice him. Like Ceil and one of her coworkers Laguna below. The two humans were chatting with each other in high spirits. Their eyes met; they smiled. And they stayed closer together than humans normally were when they talked. While they might not say anything yet, they showed attraction to each other.

Neko put his hands together and kept watching. He used to be known as Zero, back when their world existed. And he used to work closely with Ceil, and cared for her. But that was in a friendly manner, never anything more. Still, it felt odd to see that she may be in love now. What did that mean for him? He and Ceil were already drifting apart from their former partnership. It was sad. But then, they had different areas of focus.

" _You should write them a letter before they go,_ " Xenophon said, sitting on the arm of the chair. " _Since you can't speak right now._ "

He nodded. He just had to decide what to write. Then, he heard quiet footsteps along the second floor hallway. Neko looked in time to see the boy reploid X walk by. He stopped, tensing up in fear. Looking him over, Neko guessed it was more the unexpectedness than who he was that startled X. But then he relaxed. "Oh, hello Neko, Xenophon."

" _Hello X_ ," Xenophon said. " _Are you doing okay?_ "

"Mostly," he said, coming over to the chair. "You two are like me and my friend Zero, right? In the future."

" _We're similar, but from different worlds. We were X and Zero at some time in the past, but things changed. But they're very different worlds. We had elves, but no magic. And the history of Dr. Wily and Dr. Light are different between the two worlds. So if you're worried about us indicating your future, don't be. I don't think there's a fate set for anyone._ " He smiled up to Neko, who nodded in support.

"Okay," X said, although he still seemed troubled about something. "Well, we're safe from Dr. Wily here, so we're doing all right, mostly. Sometimes I have trouble believing that I'm really here." He started to say something else, but then stopped.

Neko felt some concern for this world's X, so he patted his hand. He had heard some of the boys' story, that Dr. Wily wanted them for some unspoken plan. Probably something malicious, he thought. But Neko had to wonder about this world's Zero and his origins. It was open that X was Rock's son, but Zero… if he, like Neko, had been created by Dr. Wily (or descended from him, as this world would say), there could be great trouble in the future for these two. At least they still had their friendship. That might help them pull through.

However, mirror worlds were hard to predict. The histories might not go the same, he was learning.

"We'll be okay," X said abruptly. "I hope you'll be okay on your research into Shadow Palace." Then he went downstairs, ending the conversation.

" _I'm concerned about them,_ " Xenophon said. " _But they have many guardians here and someone needs to look into the activity of Shadow Palace. We'd be best suited for the latter._ "

Neko nodded. They would leave these alternate versions of themselves to their families. That was safest and fairest.

* * *

Back in Shadow Palace, a shadow elf raced along the halls. He made seven right turns in a row, which led him to a heavy oak door with a magical seal on it. He knocked.

"Who is it? I'm busy."

" _Bloody Eye_."

Copy X opened the door. The room inside was hazy. "Yes, Bloody Eye?"

Bloody Eye generally had important news, as he did now. But his aura showed signs of being ashamed. _"The prisoners are gone, master. Neko, Star, and Xenophon all left_."

"What? How did they get free?"

" _The children of spring came and took them away."_

"Children of spring…"

" _X and Zero."_

"Oh them. Dammit! I'm going." Copy X stormed down the hall. He called the shadows to make an exit portal.

" _M-master X! Hold on!"_

"Not now, unless you're going to help me." He stopped at the wall where the exit portal was ordered to appear. Nothing happened.

" _Your powers only work in the Palace,"_ Bloody Eye reminded him.

"Well can't you or one of the others fix that?" He glared at the wall and reordered the exit portal. He gripped the gold key, just to make sure.

" _No. Besides…"_

"Open the portal!" Copy X yelled at the wall.

" _You can't leave,"_ Bloody Eye told him.

"That's nonsense. I'm the Master of Shadow Palace, yes, but I can leave whenever I want. I just haven't wanted to until now."

"You can't leave," Ikari Domino echoed.

Copy X turned to Ikari. He appeared and disappeared at whim; Copy X had gotten used to it a long time ago. "What are you talking about?"

"The exit doors have certain signs to them," Ikari said calmly. "They appear at random. However, they will not appear when one is handling the gold Master Key. They can only appear on command if one is handling the silver Master Key."

"The silver Master Key? You only gave me a gold one."

"I know."

Copy X's eyebrow twitched. He felt an unnerving sense of déjà vu. "So will you give me the silver Master Key? I need to recapture my prisoners."

"No."

"Why not? You promised to empower me."

Ikari nodded. "And I did. Every shadow being respects you and will do whatever you wish. Except get you an exit to this place. They can't do that."

" _If I could, I would, I promise,"_ Bloody Eye said. " _You're the best shadow ever."_

"Shadow?" Yes this was getting unnervingly close to when Dr. Wiel showed Copy X that he was merely a puppet.

"You've always been a shadow to that X, now called Xenophon. You were meant to fool people and cover the truth." Ikari nodded. "You are the best shadow ever, which is why you're the perfect Master of Shadow Palace. But I can't have you leaving and losing most of your powers. Here, your power is absolute; you can do whatever you wish with the other shadows. Stay here and leave reality to the originals. Even if it is just all a mockery in the end."

"Original… no, I'm an individual!" Copy X fired at Ikari. He dissolved.

"This is only a projection," Ikari said. "My shadow. But, of course, it doesn't try to be independent."

"I am not a shadow or a puppet. I'll make you pay for this, Ikari."

"You only have power in Shadow Palace, remember? I put you here. I gave you the power to destroy Wiel. So what if it blew up your home world in the process? It did what you wanted."

This made him pause. He remembered one of Neko's accusations, that he'd destroyed their world. He didn't think it was true at the time. He'd given magic to the world. "Home… I blew up my home world?"

"You did. Shadow Palace is in another world."

"But you said giving my world magic would save it."

"Did I? The Black Sphere put too much magic into your world's core, causing it to disintegrate. But that helped my plans immensely, for which I owed you a great deal. So I put you here to be Master. You wanted power; you have it."

"But if I can't leave and use it against my enemies…"

"You don't need to worry about enemies." Ikari's image smiled. "You got what you wished for. Respect, power, loyal followers… be grateful. I could take it away if you get out of hand. Forget about Neko and Xenophon; appreciate what you do have. I'll be around." The image vanished.

Bloody Eye twinkled. _"We love you, Master X! Your home world didn't appreciate you enough. You've told me those stories. Besides, this is the best place for shadows. The outside world has the evil sun."_

But Copy X wasn't comforted. "Trapped in a loony castle with only shadows…"

* * *

November 3rd

Back in his homeworld, X had pursued a number of different subjects to learn, out of pure curiosity most of the time. This included meditation. He had decided to use this to reach out to his mirror self, the child. They were all certain that he was there, but it was hard for even the adult X to figure out when he would listen.

He could visualize the mind as a kind of cyberspace maze. Why this held across worlds was something he wasn't sure of. This brought up the dream maze of columns, and he navigated that to come to a place he thought the child was hiding in. It did have a high feeling of security. But with the relaxation from the meditation and some hints from other parts of the child's mind, the adult managed to get through.

Then he came up on a guard he wasn't expecting. It was a reploid woman. When adult X encountered her, an odd sensation came over him. He felt as though he knew her better than he knew what she looked like. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

He couldn't move on until he could pass by her, he felt. "I came to help my mirror self, X. He called for me."

"Your intentions are good," she said. "Follow me." She vanished.

Before he could wonder about that, he found the visualization changing. Instead of being on an open maze walkway, they were now inside an enclosed room that felt very secure. But there was also calmness, a gentle edge to that tension. The child was there.

And he was surprised. "How did you get into my mind like this?" he asked. The calmness began to break up.

The adult tried to restore it with his meditative calm. "I was careful. We need to talk. You called us here to solve a problem, but we need to know more about it."

"Oh, well…" There was a deep sense of guilt rising up. "I don't know what you mean."

The lie was painfully obvious. The adult X felt a brief anger about that, but did his best to hide then push it away. As he was in this child's body, he didn't want to make things worse. It seemed he would have to earn this child's trust more. "I see. Well we came to this world to help you and your friend Zero. What's going on?"

"I don't…" the child started to think in a strange fear. But that fear turned to frantic thoughts.

As the fear grew stronger, fragments of memories came up. The adult found himself picturing child Zero with fire red eyes. "…the end of you… I will protect you now…" and the Fire Dragon engulfed his body.

And there was some large mirror that was placed inside a small room. But its surface did not hold reflections. Its surface held every fear imaginable. According to it, everything was dangerous.

The adult felt that this would turn out bad if it continued. "X, keep calm," he said. "You don't need to panic, child."

"It's a stretch to call you a child, X Light," a memory's voice replied. "Your body may be immature, but your mind is completely mature. You will have the responsibility for the care of the normal infant. And if you fail, I will punish you as an adult. Possibly even kill you if the need is there."

A quieter echo added, "Devil child…"

"I always knew I was unnatural," the child's thoughts came through.

"That's a bad way to put it," the adult replied. "You're extraordinarily gifted."

"It's a bad gift." The child seemed uncomfortable. "You're doing fine. Things will work out, I feel. Just hang on until March, please. Then you can go back home and not worry about us anymore. It'll be okay if I can just make it to then."

Adult X didn't feel that to be an acceptable answer. "I'm living your life for you, it seems. I can't see how that helps with your two monsters… you mean the Ice and Fire Dragons, right? And what's so important about March?"

At that, child X got defensive. "What are you talking about? You are helping. Just ask Zero; I could barely function back in the Tower and I knew that place. This place, there's so many more threats that I don't know, but I know they're there, and…"

The adult's focus was tested as his lungs tried to seize up in fright. Trying to think of something to calm the child with, he said, "Okay… we'll work like this for now. But we need to talk more often. You understand your world better than I do."

"Not all that well…"

"Like who's this woman in your mind?"

That seemed to work, as he relaxed. "Oh, her? She's my mother."

"Your mother?" He was now able to visualize the child talking to him in that safe room. The woman was standing with them, but still indistinct.

"I've never met her face to face, that I remember, but I remember and know her."

"I don't understand that," the adult said. "How can you not have met her, but know her?"

Some amusement slipped in, which was a good sign. The memory voices had entirely faded. "It's something I'm not supposed to know about; I'm only three and they don't talk to reploid children about this until they're nine or ten."

That was around the time they entered their form of adolescence, the adult thought. "I see."

"I'm still young enough that I find it kind of, well, gross, but see… reploid children don't come about in the same was as human children. It starts the same way, sort of… sorry, I haven't looked into that much. But human embryos start as cells that grow minds. Reploid embryos start as minds and develop as pure programming data."

"Just data?"

"Yeah, a separate but dependent personality program that develops in the mind of the reploid mother. When the child is developed enough, she goes to a birthing engineer who scans the child's data and builds a body based on that. A reploid's birthday is the day his or her personality is taken out of the mother's mind and placed into his or her own body."

"So what you have here is your memory of your mother's mind?"

"Right. Reploid infants can identify their own mother by memories of her mind and aura. It's said that even if separated, any child could possibly do this. I'm sure that if I met my mother, I would know her instantly."

"I'm helping him as well," the mother said.

"That makes sense. I still don't see how what we're doing will help."

That set the child off again. "But you saw… them… Um, could you go now? I want to be alone."

"Are you sure? Your soul is very tense, and that maze out there…"

"It's fine, it's nothing."

The adult looked into his eyes. This child wasn't adding up. He claimed to know little, but as much of a genius as he was, he should know something more. The adult was certain this was the child who called them. And it was obvious he wasn't fine. "All right. But I want to tell you something."

"What?"

"Your friend Zero misses you."

"How? I'm with him every day."

"But you're not. I'm always in control. I've noticed that. Even when you are afraid, I can manage the fear and continue as I was doing. I haven't noticed you taking over much since I learned we were both in here. And Zero has noticed. He hasn't said much, but he keeps asking to talk to you."

Child X put his fingers in his hair and twisted it. "Has he really?"

"Were you not even paying attention?"

He sighed and looked away. After a minute of silence, he said, "I'm safe here."

"What was that?"

"I'm safe here. It's okay, it's fine. You're doing what needs to be done. You don't have to worry. This is only temporary."

"So you do know what's going on."

"Not entirely," he said quickly. "I'm safe. You'll be safe back home in a few months. Just don't cause trouble and it will all be over before you know it. Then everything will be okay and we'll have nothing to worry about."

"X, what is it?"

"X, leave this area now."

"Please leave for now," the mother asked.

"All right, but I'd like an explanation of it sometime." He brought his mind back out from looking inward.

He felt tense for the rest of the evening.

* * *

November 4th

Light residence

In the evening, X came into Zero's room. "Hey, can we talk?"

"Sure, what is it?" When the door was shut, he added, "Did you find my friend yet?"

He got onto the bed with him. "Yeah, I did."

The child Zero perked up, smiling. "Good! How is he? Can I talk with him?"

"Not yet," the adult X admitted. "He's trying to deal with his curse of fear by ignoring the world, or by using me as a kind of shield. He wouldn't answer most of my questions."

"But did you get him to explain why he brought us here?" the adult Zero asked.

Feeling his body go tense, X waved his hand between them. "Hold on, Zero. His situation is…" he tried to figure out how to put it kindly, "fragile right now. If we push him too much, he'll just keep hiding. In the meantime, we should try to learn what we can, about the dragons, Wily's clan, and also why Sigma is here with us. I'll do my best to encourage him."

Zero closed his eyes. "Sorry. I'm better suited for battle situations, where problems come so quick you have to act quick. This slow going process... I'm trying to be patient."

"I know you are."

However, he seemed to be getting fed up with it. "This world just keeps getting weirder and weirder. When are we going home?"

"Well, if I could convince Ceil that we are from another world, I could ask her how she and Neko got here in more technical terms."

"People believe they're from another world," child Zero said bitterly. "Why not you adults?"

"Because we can't tell them of our world. Unlike Ceil, who can and has told us about hers."

"Why is that? Why can she tell, but not us?"

X rubbed his forehead. "I don't know; I don't have all the answers. I'm trying the best I can, but the public library only carries so many mystical books, and very little on other worlds."

"Sorry. I don't seem to be much of a help to you now. Cause, you know, we need information and I'm only average…"

X gripped his friend's hand and looked him in the eye. "Hey, it's okay. You're here with me. I'd rather it be like it is now than for me to be in this alone."

"Thanks. I hope we can get back soon, though."

"Yeah… "

Then the child Zero opened his eyes and looked to X. "I, um… I think I made the problem with my friend worse. The Fire Dragon that tries to possess me, I think it scares him. And I can't control it well."

"I'm helping you with that," the adult Zero said.

"Yeah, we'll figure out what's going on." X nodded. "We just have to trust each other."

"Okay," the child Zero said meekly. "You're so like him, rather, how he used to be. Even with how alike you are, though, I can tell the difference now and I've realized I haven't spoken with him for months. I miss him… weird, huh?"

"No, I understand. He's your best friend. Do you know of anything that might help me open him up?"

"Well, I could share more memories, but I'm not sure which ones would help. He was stressed out even before the curse."

"The curse of fear, right."

"Look, just make sure he knows I miss him and that I want to talk to him again. He's really really smart; he should know what's going on, if only he'd speak. I know he'd be able to solve this with your help."

X nodded. "I guessed that and I told him. He's sorry about that." He felt that more than knew it.

But even as they said good night to each other, all four there either knew or could tell that many things were still unsaid.


	16. A Mother's Deception

November 11th

Ikari Tower

Two reploid women walked through the empty halls of Ikari Tower's basement complex. The visitor looked around idly, wondering where all the troops were. With her high heels clacking on the floor, she wasn't trying to be stealthy. Her guide wore quieter shoes and could have been stealthy if she so choose. But there were cameras watching their path and certainly guards hiding in the shadows. The stark hall did not reveal any secrets.

At a door like any other, the guide stopped and turned to the guest. She had something of a look of disdain on her face before opening the door. "Master Wily, Lady Adanya has come at your request," she said in an even tone of voice.

"Thank you, Splash," Adanya said, not showing much gratitude in her tone. Splash glared at her with her one blue and one silver eye, then left without a word.

"Come in," a mechanical voice commanded from the darkness.

Normally, Adanya wasn't one to follow orders from those she wasn't close to. But this was Master Wily, someone she'd rather not anger. She came into the room, a robotics workshop. In the back of her mind, she felt some concern. Due to certain arrangements, she had avoided being enslaved like Splash and the Wily made reploids, even though she worked for the master. Was this about to change?

Instead of being met with a human, there was a mechanical device in the room with her. The base was shaped like the flying saucers Wily liked, while the top was a tall black dome. Not quite three feet high, it was an odd device. Master Wily spoke through that device. "Have you heard that the two children X and Zero had escaped?"

She snorted. "No, why should I care about news on them? I'm done with that."

"Not anymore. I want you to retrieve X."

"What?" she asked, clenching her right fist. "Why? I want nothing more to do with that brat or his father and he should know that."

"He doesn't," Wily stated. "It is a delusion he started himself, but one that we can take advantage of. I will give you the information you need about where they are living and observations that have been made. Get him and bring him back here. You don't have to bother with Zero; we'll handle that one."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'd rather deal with this Zero kid instead."

"You can't. You will retrieve X. I will compensate you well." The floating dome reached out a spindly arm to pick up a piece of paper and hand it over.

Snatching it, Adanya looked over the offer. Wily was offering a good reward, like he always did. But did she really want to deal with X again for it? Looking closer, she noticed nothing that said he had to arrive unharmed. Just alive. She could use whatever she needed to keep the brat quiet.

"Fine, but I don't want you backing out on the arrangement anymore," she said. "I don't want to deal with X or Rock after this."

"Very well. If things go right, you need not worry about them at all."

"So what else is there to know?" she asked, receiving a data chip as an answer.

* * *

November 11th

Sonya took the boys to a park; she and Zero got into a game of I Spy. It was probably the child, X thought. His friend was allowing the child to play freely. So why can't I do the same? X wondered from a jungle gym where he was thinking things over.

He heard paws crunching snow, and thought some dog was wandering about. But when he looked, it was a wolfoid, not a dog. Then it occurred to him, there might be something Forte could help with.

X got off the jungle gym and casually walked over to the wolfoid. She made a friendly gesture of a sniff. X scratched her head. "May I speak with you… Pearl?" he whispered, sensing her name from a pearl on her forehead.

Pearl seemed to bow her head. She watched him.

He bowed to her. "I heard you can call Forte for us. Could you tell him I wish to speak to him about Zero? Something's wrong with him and I think it's bad programming, but no one notices."

She made a huffing sound.

"That's it. It just worries me. I'm not sure how I can meet with him though. He said he's not welcome in society, but that we should ask him for help…"

She wolfed softly, licked his face, then walked off. She glanced back at him. He was to follow, X realized. Glancing back first to make sure Sonya wouldn't notice, he did so.

Forte was sitting on a park bench, pretending to read while he watched Sonya and Zero. He wasn't wearing his helmet, but was wearing a long traveler's cloak with the hood down. Gospel was nearby, watching another way. No one else seemed to notice the two. Still, X walked up quietly. "Hello."

"Good afternoon, X. You seem to be doing well in school, with exceptional marks all the way."

"So you are watching us?"

He nodded. "As well as I can, given that I can't be in this city for long. My wolf children watch when I can't and hide very well."

"I don't see them often. I found Pearl by accident."

Pearl wolfed softly at Forte. They must communicate with more than sound.

"So what is it about Zero that worries you?"

"Ever since we got here, he seems to have a problem with biting people. He's always had a temper, but it's never been this bad. I mean, he bit a kid the other day because a teacher had scolded him ten minutes before and they tripped up each other."

"That is a problem."

"If it was just his way of dealing with threats and anger, we could do what everyone is saying and get him into aggression therapy. But I don't think it is. He says he can't control himself and that his mind blanks out during some incidents. He can only bite now, but when he gets older and stronger, and I know he will get very strong, it won't be good."

"I agree. Has he bitten you?"

X shook his head. "No. He just punches me if he gets mad at me. I can block him and it's not often we get mad at each other."

"Good, because if he's bitten you, he will be harder to recover. If his mind blanks, then something's causing his temper to flare beyond his control. There are ways to counter that. I'm not saying it will go away completely, but I think we can bring it under control. We can bring the rage down to a level he can deal with."

"So long as it can be tamed."

"Right. I'll seek out what he needs and return to him as soon as possible. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I knew he was temperamental, but from my vantage point, I can't see it fully."

"Okay, thanks for helping him."

Forte put his hand on X's shoulder and looked in his eyes. "And you could learn some courage in the meanwhile. I can see it there in you, a great potential, but you're not allowing yourself to use it. Sometimes in order to save a world, you need to destroy part of it. Destruction can be as healthy as construction if in balance. Good day child."

And he seemed to vanish in front of X's eyes.

"Forte? What do you mean?"

Forte was completely gone from the park bench. Pearl and Gospel were no longer sitting nearby. Their marks in the snow were even gone. X shivered. Did Forte believe them from another world? What he said would make more sense if it were said to his adult self, not his child self.

"X," Sonya called. "We need to go back home."

"All right." It was too mysterious to solve now. He'd best get home and try to find child X.

* * *

November 16th

Maple Street Elementary School

_You can do this._

X bit his lip. The child was in control of his body at that moment. This morning, he had agreed to come out for a little while instead of letting the adult control his body. It had taken a lot of coaxing and he had to admit that the residents of this city were friendlier than those of the tower. But then…

There was danger. Not a big danger, but it would hurt. It was a device of power, even if everyone around them saw it as common. It did a job, but if he moved his fingers at the wrong time, they would be smashed. Or worse, a sharp piece of metal would be jammed into his flesh, causing a great deal more pain. But he had to use it. Place the papers so and press…

There was a thumping sound that made him wince. But that was done. He'd overcome that danger. However, that was just the classroom stapler. As he clutched the papers in his hands, he knew that there were a billion other dangers in this room alone.

"X."

The man's voice made him freeze up. No, that was the teacher, he told himself, and turned around to look at him. Signas had grabbed his cane and gotten out of his seat, starting to walk for the door.

"Come with me," the teacher said. "I just got a message that some things have arrived I need to get from the front office. The rest of you, keep working. Ash, you're in charge of the rest."

"Yes sir," Ash replied, getting a spiteful look from Lumine.

"And don't cause him trouble, Lumine," Signas added, although he couldn't have seen the look.

"I'm coming," X said after putting the stapled papers on his desk.

As Signas didn't walk fast due to his frozen leg, X was able to keep up with him despite being much smaller. Once they were out in the quiet halls, he said, "You were having flashbacks there."

X looked down at the tiled floor. "I was."

"You don't have to tell me about them." He stopped by the elevator and pressed the summon button. "But I have wondered how you've been able to resist them so long."

"Sir?" He looked up, curious. His sympathy was genuine, X felt. It was just unexpected.

"You and your friend have been through terrible things. However, he seems to be adjusting and may come to forget about much of it in time. But you, with as sharp as your mind is, you'd have a harder time doing so. You've been brave to deal with it, but if you don't face those troubles, or speak of them to those you trust, like your family… well these flashbacks won't die off easy if you say nothing."

At a ping, the elevator door opened. "I'm not brave," X said, following his teacher into the elevator. "I just act brave because…" then he thought, elevator. It could lead them to a terrible place. Or it could crash and crush them, or burn and roast them. He clung onto a railing as the door shut.

After studying him for a moment, Signas said, "In my service, I've found that it's easier to be brave on the battlefield, or in the snow fields. You must be brave or perish. It's harder to be brave when your own mind becomes your enemy." He patted X's shoulder. "Like in a short while for me."

"You get scared here?" X asked.

"Walking by the first grade room," Signas admitted quietly. "Alia keeps a bird in there. I don't know if you've heard, but the Ice Dragon sounds like a bird more than a dragon. I feel afraid when I hear a bird's call now. But it is something I must live bravely with."

That made him smile some. At least he wasn't the only one with strange fears. But maybe the only one with so many. "I won't tell anybody about that, I promise."

"Good." They left the elevator. The bird in Miss Alia's room chirped at them as they went by.

Chirp…

X felt his third eye stir. He saw a vision of a spider's web with many droplets of water on it. Creeping along the lines, the black spider came to claim its victim. The vision ended with that.

Some danger was around. But as the child X looked around, he saw danger everywhere. Which one did the spider represent? He felt his chest tense up.

And then there was a shift in his mind. The adult slipped forward to help him out. Thankful, the child searched his mind for the symbolism. If only there was a clear clue this time…

* * *

-outside Monsteropolis east gate

A slip of paper fluttered on the notebook she was looking at. The notebook was open to a magic diagram. To most others, it would be difficult to interpret. To her… it was a subtle spell, a bribe to fortune and luck. The mission itself was planned well enough that she didn't expect trouble. But she liked to have that extra fortune nudge to make sure things went smoothly. It went with the little slip of paper too. A prayer slip, it stated, 'Bring me luck in finding my family'.

Having used this particular spell many times to many successes, she was confident in it. She took her pen and finished off the crest. It glowed in activation, then burned the notebook paper into an unreadable brown mess. As she looked back to the gate, they had finally gotten the door opened. A gust of wind exchanged air between inside and out; it caught the prayer slip and snatched it from her. It didn't bother her. As the spell was complete, it wasn't of much use.

The trade caravan she was with came into the city. Guards were there, but most were helping the traders in their usual tasks. When the gate had shut behind the last of the group, she jumped out of the truck she had ridden in. Then an alarm sounded. "The facial recognition program has seen a registered criminal," a voice said over the guard's radios.

That wasn't her, right? The Master had said they had taken care of her records. But then she heard a slightly bitter voice to her right. "Adanya."

Oh crud. She looked and confirmed that it was him. "Well if it isn't Rock," she grumbled. She had the distinct feeling that she was being set up.

"That's her, Adanya Piaso," the radio voice said.

Well she wouldn't let it end like this. She cast a time freeze spell. With Rock's presence as a powerful wizard, it would only give her a short head start. But as she ran into the city, she knew she would need every little short advantage she could get to keep away from him.

* * *

-MSE school

It was recess time. As his child self was in control, Zero often played with the other children at this time. X usually was off on one of the benches, reading. Today, the blond reploid boy was clambering up the jungle gym. He was still small, though, and unable to keep up with his fellow first-grader Cyber Peacock. "The girly's not strong enough," the bird reploid taunted, waving his feathered hands in a mocking fashion.

Zero glared at him as he pulled himself onto the top section. "I'm not a girl and I am strong enough."

"If you're not a girl, then why are you designed so girly?" Yammark teased. "Your mother couldn't make up her mind?"

"I'm gonna grow up to be stronger than either of you two, so nyah," the child said. He wondered for a moment why he felt the adult Zero flinch at that, but decided it wasn't that important right now.

Elsewhere, Sandy found Shield Sheldon swinging on a swing by himself. Sandy sat by him. "Hey Sheldon, what's up?"

"Huh, oh, nothing really," the turtle reploid replied. "Sigma's with his new friends and I don't hang around with you guys much anymore. Sorry, but my dad confiscated by Battlefield cards."

"Sorry to hear about that." He swung his legs out to start the swing. "I'll hang out with you now, if you like."

"Thanks."

"But can I ask you to do something for me? It's real important."

He looked over. "What is it, Sandy?"

"You know those two kids who escaped from Ikari Tower, X and Zero?" When Sheldon nodded, he went on. "Me and Ash have been walking them home most every day now. They're still in danger and X's dad Rock is usually working when school gets out. But we're both gonna be busy this afternoon, and my mom and Iris are gonna be doing something else. So could you walk with them home? They don't live far from here."

"I see. Isn't Zero the kid who bites others?"

"He does have a nasty temper when pushed," Sandy admitted. "But so long as you're nice to him and X, he's a pretty cool kid. But they've lived with nasty evil people most of their lives, so they don't always feel safe."

"I see." Sheldon could partially understand that. His family could be quite mean to him and sometimes he felt like being mean to others because of that. However, he knew better than that. He knew how it could hurt. "I'm not doing anything immediately after school, so I can go with them."

Sandy smiled. "Okay. We'll tell them at the end of recess so they know."

At the edge of the playground, X sat on a bench holding a book. But he wasn't reading it. He was using it as a kind of shield against the other kids. There was so much going on right now, so many people around…"I can't keep track of that many threats," the child whispered.

"They aren't all threats," the adult quietly replied. "Most of them aren't."

"But they might be secret foes." He sighed and brought his feet up on the bench. He knew that was a silly thought. But that didn't stop it from being a strong one.

A slight rattle at the fence caused him to tense. It turned out to be just someone on the sidewalk running their hand along the schoolyard fence. For a moment, X relaxed. This wasn't doing them any good. But then someone snatched the book away from him. "Standard reploid systems? That sounds boring."

It was Sigma, the third child who had somehow gotten a mirror soul, X thought. The child couldn't think of why this soul had come with the two others. Especially with as mean as he was. "Th-that's not my book," he said.

"Well fine then." He tossed the book into a snow pile.

X got off the bench to retrieve it, but Sigma stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. This was going to hurt. "It's a library book," he said meekly.

"Is it more important than me?" He narrowed his eyes at the smaller child. "Do you have no control over this body? You shouldn't let them be in charge. They're just dumb kids."

"It's not our world," the adult X said quietly, trying to let the child borrow some of his courage.

"Well this whole damn world doesn't make sense," Sigma hissed. "You'd better reverse whatever you did back in the Tower, or else. I've been fair so far. This world has never seen my like, and when I do attack, it will be devastating."

X could feel the child still watching; he was very afraid. The adult decided to try facing Sigma down, to help the child. "Are you only about destruction?"

"That is what I'm for."

"You should try using this opportunity to live a different life, you know. You can actually try to fulfill your earlier noble goals."

This didn't work as he hoped. "You idiot!" He punched X in the shoulder, hard enough to knock him off balance. His head hit the wall of the building.

The child came through stronger this time, crying now. This had been a bad time for him to finally choose to look. "Leave me alone. I didn't do anything to you."

Bad choice of words too, the adult X thought. He tried to think of something to divert Sigma's obvious anger, but his head swirled from being hit. "I mean I… you brought it all on yourself…" no, that was bad too.

Sigma glowered. Although only a child, he seemed to tower over X. "Have you always been such a nitwit or is it just now? You did nothing to me? I would have had the whole world at peace and you drug us all into war."

In this body, I don't stand a chance, X thought. Unless he fought dirty or against school rules, which was completely against his better judgment. But he didn't have to decide this time. Zero had jumped off the jungle gym and run over to him. "Hey! You hurt him! Get away from X."

Sigma didn't, but turned back to look at Zero. Several other kids were now watching them. "And just what are you going to do about it?" he sneered. "Get in trouble again?"

As he was distracted, X managed to get up, intending to retrieve his book. Sigma started to chase him, but Zero managed to block him just in time. "Leave him be," the smallest child growled. "I mean it."

Clenching his fist, he still stepped forward. "You two are devils here," he said. "I might be willing to restart here…"

"No," X said softly, picking up his book and gripping it tight. He glanced at the playground full of kids… of mirrors to those who had died in wars. "You don't need to ruin their history too."

"I just have to get rid of you two early," Sigma finished, wearing a cruel smile that should not have been on the face of a child.

Through his sense of magic, X saw a flash of ruby fire erupt around Zero. It would be invisible to most everyone else on the playground. Child X became frantic. If that spirit got loose here, things would go to hell. But he didn't respond in time to stop Zero from grabbing Sigma and biting him.

"Will you stop doing that?" Sigma yelled, ripping Zero off him, then throwing him several feet to the ground. It only intensified the flames. By now, all of the kids there were watching the fight.

It didn't last long. The winged figure of the teacher Ferham soon appeared near them. "Sigma, Zero, stop this at once," she ordered sternly.

Wanting to stop the possessive spirit before it really attacked, X ran to his friend's side. "Zero!" Then he stumbled, his head throbbing painfully. Quietly, he added, "Spirit of the crimson flame, go back to your sleep within."

For a second, Zero glared at him, his eyes flashing a hateful red. But within his mind, the adult Zero managed to get the Fire Dragon's attention. 'I've dealt with things like you before,' he said sharply, but only within the child's head. 'I can beat you from within.'

Zero's eyes turned blue and fearful. "X?" he asked shakily. Then he started crying, afraid of the enemy within him.

Those watching misinterpreted it as him getting upset over Sigma's bullying. But Ferham didn't have a reputation as a strict teacher for nothing. "The two of you, to the principal's office," she stated. "You'll both be getting a detention." She then picked up X while giving a sharp look to Sigma, who scowled and stormed inside. Zero sniffled, but went inside as well. He was shaking, likely from the effort to keep the dragon contained.

X looked at the library book, but its snow damage was far from his mind. "I'm sorry, Zero," the child mumbled to himself. "I did my best, but it's apparently not enough."

'Did your best doing what?' the adult asked within his mind.

The child clammed up, trying not to think of it. But the perceived failure weighed heavily on him. Ferham quietly said, "Don't you worry. I'll drop you by the nurse's office. It shouldn't be bad."

* * *

-a building on Maple Street

Most people did not look up. Forte liked to use that to his advantage. For instance, he was currently perched on the balcony of an apartment building. The resident of the room attached to this balcony worked during the day, so he often waited here. He could watch the yard and building of the Maple Street Elementary School that X and Zero attended.

The reploid kids were going in from recess. Forte had seen the fight between Zero and Sigma, of course. Like he had told X a few days earlier, it was hard to tell from this perspective. But maybe Zero really wasn't in control of himself in those times. As a warlock, Forte knew a great many spells. But to address this problem, it might take a more technological angle.

Sitting on the balcony's ledge, Forte sat with his eyes half-closed, meditating. But his mind often drifted to the past. He had made many mistakes over his lifetime, but he had also suffered as consequence of those actions. Sometimes it got bad enough that he wondered if it was all worth it. Sometimes he thought it was, most often when he watched the two boys when they were happy.

Today, he had to be extra attentive when they left school. Over the radio, he had heard an alert that Adanya Piaso has been seen entering Monsteropolis. She was X's mother. That couldn't be a good sign. In the court records he'd read, she made for a very poor mother. In things he heard from Wily's forces, she was even worse than that.

A movement in the air caused him to open his eyes. A small scrap of paper was flying on the wind. Curious, he adjusted the air flow to bring the paper to him. Its aura indicated it was something significant, with a feeling of influence.

When he caught it, it turned out to be a prayer slip. 'Bring me luck in finding my family' it said.

Forte snorted. It was doing something all right, but what? Asking for unspecified luck was a dangerous thing to do. But then, it would work its bit of prayer magic for anyone who so much as touched it. In catching it, he was now affected by it.

Thoughtful, he pulled out a pencil he used for his spell work and adjusted the prayer slip. 'Bring me good luck in finding my family, my love' it now said. There.

With a sad thought, he wondered if this would really help him. His situation was complicated. He did not want to find his original 'family', the Wily clan. And he did not want them to find him. But if he could find the family he loved…

No. That would only make things worse. Besides, this slip of paper only had a bit of magic. That was far from enough to solve the troubles of his heart. He left it back to the wind. Perhaps it could assist someone else.

* * *

-MSE, principal's office

Zero and Sigma glared at each other from opposite sides of the principal's office. Zero held back on attacking because he didn't want to get into further trouble. As for why Sigma was staying quiet… who knew? Zero didn't know, but mentally dared him to do something. He would retaliate.

The principal finally came in. "Don't speak until I let you," he warned both of them. He sat in his chair and looked at the two. "I've heard what Ferham says. So what happened?" He looked at Sigma.

Stupid gets first turn, Zero thought in annoyance.

"I was talking with X when Zero bit me," Sigma said. "And then he yelled at me for no reason."

"So why did you fight him?"

"He was going to attack me. He had a demon in his eyes, I tell you."

The child wanted to protest, but the adult kept him quiet. He knew to prove yourself in this sort of confrontation, it was best to remain as calm as possible.

"And what happened with you?" The principal looked at Zero sternly.

He shrank into the chair. The child's mind thought up memories of getting blasted into walls after such looks. "He was scaring X. He took his book and threw it in the snow, then threatened him. I was going to tell a teacher, but then he hit X and knocked him into the wall. I'm not going to let anybody get away with hurting X." The adult chided him, so he added, "I guess I lost my temper. I'm sorry." Sorry about losing his temper, but not about biting Sigma.

The principal nodded and looked less stern. "Good. Now you must apologize to Zero for scaring X and X for hurting him."

"But I didn't do anything!"

To keep him from arguing, the adult let the child ask, "Is X okay?"

Giving a look at Sigma to keep quiet, the principal answered, "A little bloody, but okay. He got very lucky; if he had hit the wall any harder, he would have gotten a concussion. The nurse is healing him up and he'll be back in class after lunch." Then he turned to Sigma, "And if he had to go to the hospital, I would suspend you immediately. Ferham reports you did corner X, antagonize him, and punched him. Both of you are getting a detention today."

"What?" Sigma looked shocked.

"You are getting a full week of it." Then he looked at Zero. "You should have gone on to a teacher, although it wasn't necessarily wrong to defend your friend. You need to stop biting people, most importantly. It's not proper manners."

Like I could stop it, the child thought. The adult wasn't sure what to say to that, but then the Dragon stirred again. Fighting a mental enemy was different than fighting a physical one. Still, the adult turned his attention back to the dragon.

* * *

-Light family residence

The front door shut hard, so Roll heard it in her office. She came out and was surprised at who it was. "Rock? What are you doing home early?"

"Enforced time off," he stated, some anger showing in his voice. "Since I'm personally involved."

Knowing it was unusual, she came over and took her brother's arm. "Come into my office. What happened?"

He followed her, waiting until she had shut the door to drop down in the couch and speak. "It's Adanya. She's gotten into the city and we don't know where she is."

"Oh my. What for? You'd think she know better than to come here again."

"I don't know. She ran from me. But we'd better go pick up the boys from school, and make sure they're safe."

"There's still a few more hours. They'll be safe while school is in session. X has Signas for a teacher, after all."

"I can't believe she's really evaded us for this long," Rock said, looking down. "I had hoped she had died."

Normally, her brother wouldn't say that kind of thing. But this was different, Roll knew. Adanya could go to great lengths for petty arguments. But then, why was she here?

* * *

-MSE, nurse's office

Before recess ended, Sandy and another reploid child came in to visit X. "Man, that was rotten," Sandy said. "Sorry I couldn't do anything, but we were on the swings."

"It's not your fault," X said, touching the bandage on his head. "It's not that bad of a injury and I can come back to class in an hour. I'll just have a bump on my head for a bit."

"Still, I'm sorry Sigma's treating you that way," the other child said, swaying back and forth nervously. "He wasn't always like this, honest. But he changed abruptly sometime this past summer. He's not like the friend I used to know." He seemed quite downcast about it.

"Yeah, Sigma used to be something of a spoiled coward," Sandy agreed. "But he wasn't a bad guy by any means. I would've stood up for him even, but not now that he's turned all rotten."

"So he's like a totally different person?" X asked. He didn't know how much this world could do against the threat of a master virus like Sigma. But maybe a hint or two could get people suspicious.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Oh, and this is Shield Sheldon," Sandy said, nodding to the kid with him. "He's one of Dr. Gate's kids, the best one of the bunch."

"I'm not that good," Sheldon said, bashfully putting his hand to his face.

"Well you're miles nicer than any of the rest of them and that's what counts to me. This is X, and you've seen Zero. Anyhow, X, I'm sorry about this, but me and Ash can't walk with you home today. We've got a special scout meeting to attend, but part of it is to talk about getting new members. You and Zero might be able to join in another couple of weeks."

"Since they can't go with you, I agreed to walk home with you," Sheldon said. "Although if Zero's getting a detention, it might be just you. I'd have to be home by the time he gets out."

"Oh, I see." He nodded. "Well thanks, Shield Sheldon. I can tell Roll and she or Sonya could pick up Zero later."

He smiled. "It's no trouble. And call me Sheldon; everybody does."

* * *

-MSE school

It was the end of the school day. Sigma and Zero both reported for detention under Steel Massimo. Still angry at Sigma, Zero dropped his bag at the desk and tried to avoid looking at him. He'd try inciting him, he knew. And given how warm he was feeling, he didn't want to give the Fire Dragon an excuse to manifest. His adult self had it in some stalemate, so he couldn't talk with him. The child thought the dragon was sealed. But maybe his appearances before had weakened the seal.

"You stay over there," Massimo said to Sigma, who had tried to take a seat closer to Zero, perhaps to pester him.

At least that irritation would be taken care of. Zero brought out his homework to complete.

In the first floor hallway, Sheldon found himself disappointed when he saw his father and brothers gathering in the lobby. Gate spotted him before he could sneak out. "Sheldon, come here," he ordered. "We've got training to do today."

"May I come a bit later?" he asked, although he knew the attempt was probably futile. "I promised I'd walk some younger kids home. They don't live too far…"

"Well then they'll be all right alone for one day," Dr. Gate replied. He saw the last child, Shark, and waved him over. "Let's get going."

Sheldon felt terrible for being unable to keep his word. But it was just one day, and the Light's home wasn't that far away. It shouldn't be that bad.

At the Light's home, Rock was doing some work to keep his mind off things. He glanced at a clock and felt something wasn't right. Hadn't it shown that same time when he last checked? Picking it up, he checked on the battery and found that it was dead. He got up and checked another clock, which showed that it was two minutes after three. Shoot, he was late.

"Roll, I'm going to pick up the boys from school," he called.

After a moment, she called back. "Oh, sorry, I totally didn't notice the time. Be careful." Rock was already heading out.

At the apartment building, Forte had to move from his perch. The resident was coming back shortly; that man was always punctual. He kept an eye on the school entrance, but there were many children and parents coming and going, along with buses and cars stopping to pick others up. Normally, X, Zero, and their friends were some of the last to leave. Even so, he didn't want to stop watching as Adanya was in town.

He couldn't see a side entrance of the school, which was where Adanya had entered. Crossing her fingers, she knew this was a moment where luck would make or break her. If someone recognized her, or remembered what had happened years ago, she could be captured right here. If not, she could make a clean snatch.

X lingered on the stairs, wondering what to do. He could stay behind and wait until Zero was off detention. In that case, he should call Roll, then go to the library to read. Or he could find that Sheldon kid and go home. He kept feeling that sense of danger all around him, like spiders, so he didn't want to walk home alone.

When he looked around, it seemed the decision had been made for him. He saw Sheldon being taken home with his family. He was reluctant to do so; it was like chains that Sheldon thought he couldn't shake off. The adult seemed to think it made sense, considering his world's history. However, he also seemed reluctant to talk about it. Those were chains of guilt around him, the child X felt. What had happened to his adult self? Or did he want to know?

This has been a horrible day, the child thought, and the adult was inclined to agree with that. X still had a bandage with a healing crystal tied around his head; it had to stay there for the rest of the day. He headed for the school office, as the payphone he could think of was located near there. But on his way, a woman called out to him. "Oh, X! There you are."

That voice… he looked over and saw a reploid woman, on the short side, but with a slim figure. She had long dark violet hair and a red gemstone in the middle of her forehead. She seemed elegant, based on the way she dressed. But it wasn't how she looked, or sounded, that struck him. It was the way she felt. She was incredibly familiar, but in a particular, unmistakable way.

He almost couldn't believe it. "Mom?" He walked over to her, feeling somewhat nervous and somewhat relieved. "What're you doing here?"

Giving him a warm smile, she clasped his shoulder. "Oh my goodness, I'm so glad to have found you. I came looking for you, of course."

Spiders…

Brushing away that feeling, X knew he was paranoid and decided to ignore all that now. "Mom!" He hugged her. "You really came for me."

"Of course, sweetie. Did you have anything to do after school? I could take you out if not."

"I was just going home." Then he stepped away, smiling yet brushing tears away. "Sure, let's go! I can call Roll and explain."

"I can do that for you in a bit. Come on." She took his hand and left by way of the side entrance.

Rock came to the office a few minutes later. "Excuse me," he said, getting the secretary's attention. "I came here to pick up my son X and ward Zero. I didn't see them outside."

"Oh I think…" she checked the computer. "Yes, Zero's in detention this afternoon. He got into a fight with an older student at recess."

He felt a touch exasperated at that. Again? Zero tried to be a good kid, he could see it. But he got into trouble too easily. Rock's curse wasn't letting him get that worked up about it, though. "What about X?"

"I'm not sure. Cindy, have you seen X? You know, the little reploid kid in eighth grade?"

"Oh yeah, he went home a few minutes ago." At a blank look from Rock, she added, "He left with his mother, I think."

Rock cursed slightly, clenching his fist. "Can you confirm that?" he asked. "If he did, we need to alert the City Guard. She isn't supposed to have contact with him."

On checking the security cameras, it seemed that X had left with Adanya, willingly. Rock felt hurt at that. Why had he done so? Maybe he just didn't remember. But because he was on forced leave, he couldn't do anything more once the City Guard investigator came to the school. Rock went to the lobby to wait for Zero to get out of detention.

* * *

After talking happily with his mother for a while, X looked out the car window and realized they were in a part of Monsteropolis he wasn't familiar with. "Where are we going?" he asked.

"To a nice place I've heard about from a friend." She put her hand to her cheek, then back on the steering wheel. "Oh, and I don't want you to think I'm paranoid… I am a bit careful, because I've had some enemies that are looking for me."

"That's okay," X said with a smile. "I'm the same way."

She pointed to a bin between them. "I have some charm bracelets that make it hard for people to identify you. They don't suspect anything; most people forget about such details because you notice so much from moment to moment. These just make sure they can't identify you with certainty." And I should have thought to put one on in entering the city, she thought spitefully to herself. It wouldn't have helped with the facial recognition program. But then, she hadn't been expecting that.

"Oh, that's handy." He opened the bin and noted several magical items. Two engraved copper bracelets caught his eye. "These them?"

"That's right, I'm impressed." And disturbed. Children his age shouldn't recognize magic that handily.

X thought they were really a great idea. If he had one of these, he could go around outside freely without worrying about the Dark Hunters finding him. There would be hundreds of other things to worry about, though. He put one on, then handed the other to her. "Here."

"Thanks." She slipped it on and smiled at him. "I'm so glad to have you back. I've come a long ways to find you."

Just as I thought she would, the child thought. "Really?"

"Really. Came all the way from Daijon. I had heard that a brilliant young child had shown up in Monsteropolis, and I thought it could be you. And then I saw your picture in the school registry, and I was so happy. It was you, years after I thought you were gone forever. I had to come, at once, even though the Snow Patrol tried to temper my enthusiasm. But those people don't understand. My baby was alive and I had to be here now."

X clasped her arm. "I'm so glad you are. But I don't quite understand, what happened to me, and you? Why do I know you and not remember you?"

She played with his hair. "That's simple enough. Daijon is a small outpost city. But it is my home, always was and always will be. It is so small that while there are machinists there with good abilities, I believed none were good enough when you were a new intelligence in my mind. So you were with me for a very long time, over three years, until I was able to travel to a bigger city and find an engineer I trusted to build you perfectly. I wanted none but the best for you."

"Three years? That's an awful long time."

"It is. So of course you know me instantly. We lived in one body for so long that if you hadn't recognized me, I might have doubted you were my son. But of course, you knew, and so you truly are."

"Wow. So what happened to us? How did I wind up at Ikari Tower?"

"Ikari Tower?" her voice shivered. "You wound up in that horrible place?"

"Yes. There are monsters, and dark ceremonies, and horrible things…"

"You poor dear. I'm sorry, but I could do nothing for you. You were kidnapped. Snatched right from my arms by an icicle dragon. I had the Snow Patrol searching for months, but they told me there was no way you could have lived. It was horrible for me to hear… but never mind that. I'm just happy you're back with me, where you belong."

"Yeah. You need to come back home with me, with dad and my aunt Roll, and everyone! They'll be glad to see you."

"That could be. Oh, here we are." She slowed the car down.

Looking over as she parked, he saw a place called 'Sovereign Bakery'. "A bakery, huh?"

She clasped his hand after shutting off the car. "I know it's not great for you, but we can indulge today, right?"

He grinned at her. "Right!"

Inside the store, Adanya excused herself to go find a telephone directory in order to call Roll Light. Leaving X to look over the cakes on display, she checked the directory as an act, then stepped into a soundproofed booth to make a call. Quint was the one who answered. "Have you gotten him?"

"Yes I have," she answered. "No trouble from the school personnel. I did get caught by the gate's facial recognition program."

"You didn't take precautions against that?" he asked, amused.

She frowned at the wall. "It's been ages since I've been in Monsteropolis, and I've got other cities that don't care about my presence. How was I supposed to know that they still had me on record?"

"That devil Rock lives there; that should have been a major hint."

"Whatever. Are you guys at the rendezvous point?"

"Not yet. We need a few more hours."

Gripping her phone tighter, she hissed, "A few more hours?"

"Yeah, so deal with it. That'll let us meet up after nightfall, which will work better on all of us. Keep things quiet until then."

"Couldn't you have told me this earlier? I thought we would meet up at five, when there's enough traffic to cover for us."

"It's going to be more like ten, woman. Now if you were actually part of the clan, we could have arranged things better."

She snorted. "Yeah, but one reason I could do this when you couldn't is because I don't have those weird eyes of yours. If I'd gone in with one gold eye, I couldn't have gotten anywhere near the school, let alone inside."

"There is that," Quint relented. "So I'm guessing you need that message now."

"Right. And you better not have changed it, or you're not getting him."

"Uh-huh. End the call and I'll get it to you."

Doing so, she waited in the booth for a few more minutes after getting the message. She had to be composed at this stage. In the meantime, X waited for her in the main shop.

He was close to laughing. This was wonderful! He looked over the deserts on display, but he didn't care about them so much as his mother. He felt a prodding in his mind, so he closed his eyes and meditated briefly. It took a few false starts, because he was so excited. But then he was able to open his eyes in his mindscape. His adult self was sitting in one of the small areas, and smiled at him. "It's good that you're happy."

"Of course I'm happy!" child X proclaimed. "I always knew I was with mother a long time. So often I dreamed of being safe in her mind again, even before the nasty mirror. It must have been the only time I've really been comfortable."

"But something seems off to me. I don't like this situation."

"She's my mother. She couldn't wish to harm me."

"There's something wrong with how she touches you, and listens. It's different than how your father does."

"He doesn't matter," child X said coldly. "He doesn't really have a connection to me like she does. And besides, he's cursed as much as me."

"It feels very dark and bleak, so his ability to communicate with others may be handicapped. And he does matter to you."

"No he doesn't. Not like my mother."

"You were glad to have him earlier."

"That's because I went from having no parents to having him. Do you have any idea how much I went through trying to take care of Zero when no one would take care of me? But he's not what I hoped for."

"I don't think your mother is either. It's very suspicious that we came this far from your home, and that she just showed up at school without calling them first."

"It's fine. Just let me be happy with her, okay?"

Adult X paused, not used to that sharp tone from him. But he was still concerned about what was going on. "Okay. But I'll be right with you."

When Adanya felt sufficient time had passed, she came back out to find X looking through some catalog. He smiled and came over to her, though. "I could've talked to her, if you needed me to."

"That's okay; I know Miss Roll." Unfortunately. She showed him the text message they had fabricated yesterday. "She's okay with you staying with me for today; isn't that great?"

"Yeah." X looked over the message. It came from Roll's phone and was much how she liked to message. It said that she was happy that X had found his mom, which made him glad. "So now they won't worry."

"Right. So did you see anything good?"

"There's some that look really good. What kind would you like?"

* * *

-MSE school

There, done with homework. At least detention had been something productive this time, Zero thought. His skin had cooled down, so it seemed the adult had been successful. The child closed his eyes. 'Are you okay?'

'I'm whole,' he replied. 'I should be resting for the rest of today.'

'All right. Did you really fight something like him before?'

There was a pause. 'Not quite like this,' the adult said. 'I hope for your sake that it isn't that.'

'Oh. Well thanks for helping me with him.'

"Zero." The child opened his eyes and looked up at Steel Massimo. The other students in detention were getting up. However, the teacher tapped his desk. "Stay a bit longer."

"Um, okay." He looked around and saw Sigma leaving. Then he turned back to the teacher. "Why?"

"There's some trouble. None caused by you, but I need to make sure that you leave with Rock. He'll explain."

The child's immediate thought was that maybe the Dark Hunters were in the city. But if they were, wouldn't the teacher want to make sure all the students left safely? Or maybe he was in more trouble than he thought. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

After gathering his things, Zero left the classroom with Massimo. They found Rock in the lobby. Something seemed wrong with him. Looking down at the floor, he seemed distracted but entirely emotionless. Maybe it was one of his curse's bad days. However, Zero had expected X to be there. He wasn't.

"Hi Rock," Zero said half-heartedly. "Where's X?"

Tensing at the question, he got up and offered his hand. "Let's get home. Then we'll talk."

Something was very bad here, he felt. But the child felt frightened of the danger, so he took Rock's hand and walked quietly out of the school with him. Outside, the weather was quite windy with a chilly bite. Zero wanted to pull both of his hands under his cloak, but it felt safer to be holding onto the old hero. There were others hurrying on the sidewalks and in the roads, trying to get out of this bad weather. And each one of them could be a danger.

Seeing something flutter in a snowbank, Zero stooped down to pick up a piece of paper. Rock didn't react, watching elsewhere. Something was odd about this paper, Zero thought. There was something written on it, in two different hands. 'Bring me good luck in finding my family, my love'. What did that mean? He nearly showed it to Rock, but a strong gust of wind stole it out of his grasp.

Zero looked back and saw it fly into the air. He then turned back so he didn't stub his foot against the sidewalk. Noting that it was their block at least, he felt he couldn't stand it anymore. "What's going on? Are the Dark Hunters around?"

"No," Rock replied, his voice sounding dead to emotions. "X's mother is."

That confused him. "She is? What's bad about that?"

"She is a terrible woman; she betrayed my love and trust, she made me think X was dead… and I'm sure she won't treat X any better. We've been trying to find her since morning, but all we know is that she showed up at school and took him with her. We haven't heard anything from the two of them yet."

X was gone? But why did Rock sound so indifferent about it? He should feel terrible. Zero looked up to him. "Rock?"

"I should be so angry about now…" his eyelids drooped and didn't seem highly alert. "Zero, you go inside and stay there. I'm going…"

"Going to find them?"

"Going, somewhere." He looked down at him, then waited.

Feeling intimidated, Zero let go of his hand and shuffled back. "Okay." He then gripped his backpack and ran inside. "I thought X's mom would be a good person."

'You did?' the adult asked silently.

"He didn't talk about her much, but he kept saying we'd escape and find my dad and his mom. At least he did, until the Fire Dragon…" the child stopped in the hall, feeling terrible and helpless.

The adult Zero was at a loss himself. He wasn't used to this idle waiting. If he was in normal form, he'd have gone out in search of X the moment he knew he was missing. But this child needed to be at home now, protected with trusted people to watch over him. And the adult couldn't even be one of those watchers, save from within, keeping an eye on that strange violent spirit that was hiding here. It was frustrating; he knew he wasn't good at this. But he had to do it.

"Ah Zero, there you are," Roll said, coming into the hall. "It's late."

"I had detention," he admitted, passing over the note.

"Again?" She glanced at important bits. "Zero, why do you keep biting people? I am definitely calling an anger counselor for you now."

"It was Sigma's fault! He took X's book and threw it in the snow. So of course X tried to talk him into shame, but Sigma punched him instead and teased him when he started crying. That's when I bit him."

"You should be more careful. Where's Rock?"

"He's still outside," Zero said, his anger dying off. "He said he was going somewhere, but he seemed strange, like he was sleepwalking."

"Oh no," Roll said softly. She went to the front door and opened it. "Rock!" But it seemed that he was already gone.

Zero fidgeted with his backpack. "Did I do something wrong? He told me to go inside."

"No, it's not your fault." She closed the door and took his hand. "Well stick with me for now. I need to call the Guard. It's his curse; he could wander off anywhere in this state." She looked to the receptionist area. "Sonya, be careful about who comes and goes from here."

"Yes, m'am," she replied.

In Roll's office, the woman sat down to call in about Rock going missing too. After an uncertain moment, Zero put down his backpack and sat in a sofa. 'X wasn't talking to me at lunch,' he thought. 'Maybe I scared him when the Fire Dragon nearly came. I should apologize… but what if he never comes back?'

'We have to trust the City Guard to do their jobs,' the adult thought-said back.

'But he might hate me for it. And I've been really bad today…' A memory pushed through his mind and came to both of them without being called.

* * *

March '54

It was quiet. Somehow that was worse. Looking to the room they had locked X in, Zero could remember how awful he'd felt when his friend had been screaming. But then he had gone quiet, and it had been hours ago. Was he asleep? Or was it something so terrible that his voice had given out? Zero was finding it hard to cry anymore himself. His throat hurt and his eyes were irritated.

Sniffing, he rubbed his head. He was feeling dizzy. While the room was mostly empty, Ballade was still here. He was drinking something, slumped in a chair and muttering to himself every now and them. Although he scared Zero, the boy felt he had to try something. He put his hands on the bars of his cage. "Sir? May I…?"

Before he could ask for a drink of water, Ballade threw a glass bottle at the cage, causing it to shatter. Zero tried to scramble back, but the cage was small. The Hunter then stormed over there, glaring hatefully at him. "This is all your ******* fault, you treacherous bastard!"

Zero was terrified, his power core pounding in his chest. "B-but I…"

Ballade slammed on the bars, making the whole cage shake. "If you hadn't been born, then none of this would have happened! We wouldn't have X, we wouldn't have this utterly insane plan to go on, we might not even have that colorless freak ordering us about, and I wouldn't…" he then screamed in pain, clutching his head. Weirdly, his silver eye was glowing bright.

Whimpering, Zero wondered if that was true. Were they tormenting X just because of him? If that was so, then his own life was a terrible mistake and he was doing something horrible just by living. He hadn't considered that possibility before.

The door slammed open, startling Zero enough that he crashed into the metal bars and hurt his head. Quint and Enker had returned. "****, what happened to you?" the latter asked.

Ballade was shaking as he scowled at Zero. "You ******* bastard runt, I hate you! I'd kill you if…"

Grabbing him, his two brothers yanked him away from the cage. "Shut up," Quint said. "He's a rotten child, but we need him alive for now. Take him up to the Quiet Room."

"Right." Enker then teleported away with Ballade.

After that, Quint shot out the lock on Zero's cage. "Well come out of there, stinker, unless you want to stay there for eternity."

Shaking with fear, Zero did as ordered. His head immediately went fuzzy and weird. He stumbled over to where Quint was, but found it hard to focus as the Hunter opened up the locked door and went in to retrieve X. Concerned, Zero tried to clear his head so he could be there.

X was pale, stumbling every few steps and causing Quint to snap at him. When he saw Zero, he stopped in his tracks. His blue eyes were wide with fear.

Maybe it is all my fault, Zero thought. But things went black for him then. Next thing he knew, X was shaking him. "Zero? Please?"

He opened his eyes; his mouth and throat were painfully dry. "X?" he asked hoarsely.

"Oh good." X was sitting by his side, his head hung in shame. "I thought you might die."

"I'm sorry," he said, hoping to get some words of comfort.

But X started weeping instead.

* * *

November 16, '54

"All my fault?" Zero whispered, bringing his legs onto the sofa and hugging them.

'You can't trust the words of one who hates you,' the adult said, trying to reassure him. 'And he seemed to be drunk, which would distort his judgment.'

It didn't have the effect he was hoping for. But then Roll came over to sit by him. "It'll be okay, Zero," she said, rubbing his back. "They'll find X and Rock."

"But what if they don't?" Zero asked, frightened and upset. "Would you get rid of me? Because I've been really bad…"

"We won't be getting rid of you," she answered.

He shook his head and tried to look away from her. But he didn't feel the hot anger of the dragon. This was a chilling thought to him. "But you only kept me because X liked me! You'll get rid of me if he's gone!" Then he started bawling.

Unseen, the adult Zero was now fully at a loss of what to do. But Roll seemed to know. She pulled the child Zero onto her lap and held him there while he cried.


	17. Old Illusions

November 16th, XX54

Cain household

Sigma ate dinner with his supposed family. It was so frustrating being a child. He was restricted in just about every way. The worst was probably his family. They went against everything he had fought for back home. The best was the RFF, but his time with Gate and the others was limited. And even if they called him their 'star-destined leader,' they didn't take him seriously and tried to influence him with personal politics. If they knew any better, they'd know that only Sigma's view mattered.

He hid the detention note, and the bite mark. David didn't like him to be a 'bully' and wanted him to play nice. He didn't understand that Sigma had higher purposes to answer to, like true justice and eventual peace. Sigma was a world leader, although nobody was wise enough to see that.

However, Roger had somehow heard of the fight and detention. "Sigma, I heard you hit another boy over recess and got a week's worth of detention for it. Why?"

"He was being an idiot," Sigma grumbled.

"Now that's no reason to hit people," Zeta said. "I hope you apologized."

"But his friend bit me again. They're the mean kids."

Roger tapped his shoulder. "Maybe if you stopped bothering X, then Zero would stop biting you. He is very protective of his friend."

Ugh. His 'brother' was no help whatsoever. "X is such a crybaby. He screams if you talk to him from behind."

His mother tapped her fork on her plate. "Then try to avoid that kid, what, X? It can't be that hard. Repairing those teeth tears on your clothes gets tedious after a while."

David checked his wrist computer. "X, you mean X Light?"

Roger nodded. "Yeah. Shy little kid; he does get spooked at the littlest things, but he came from Ikari Tower, so you can't blame him."

"I've got a missing child alert for X Light. He was kidnapped right after school."

"Oh, the poor dear," Zeta said. "Some people just get the worst luck in life."

"He's probably just hiding somewhere," Sigma said. "Scaredycat."

* * *

Sovereign Bakery, Monsteropolis

A small pale tan spider ambled across the window frame. X had almost missed seeing it. Was it a harmless one or not? "I'm moving into the White ring, we think," he said, answering a question his mom had asked. "I know a lot about healing already and… I have visions at times."

"You have visions?" she asked, showing some interest. They had finished their cakes earlier, two slices of a rich and delicious chocolate mint torte. Yet, they were still talking in the bakery.

He nodded. "Yeah. Like today, I keep seeing spiders. It's a sign of danger, I think." Then he yawned. "But I think it's weird that I keep getting this gloomy image today, when I should have gotten something nice because you came. Maybe I'm just having an off day or something."

"It could happen." She patted his hand. "You look tired."

"A little bit," he admitted. "We can go back to my home. Then you can be with dad again, and meet my friend Zero. It'll be great."

"Hmmm." She crossed her arms on the table and shrugged. "Could be nice.

'That was an odd reaction,' the adult thought, feeling suspicious.

'I dunno, maybe she and dad had a fight at some time.' He glanced back for the spider, but it was gone. Then he saw something past the window: two uniformed humans beside the green car they had come here in. "What're the City Guards doing with your car?"

"I don't think I parked in a limited zone, but maybe I did," Adanya said. "Oh, you have a bit of chocolate on your face."

"I do?" X asked, slightly embarrassed but having enough fun this afternoon that he chuckled. "Where?"

"I'll get it." She took out a wet wipe and ran it over his lips.

But then it didn't smell like the usual cleaning cloth, X noticed. And his tiredness went from a little bit to complete exhaustion. "Uhm, huh?"

She picked him up then, keeping the cloth where it was for a minute. "Hush," she whispered, in a strict tone all of a sudden. After crumpling the cloth into her pocket, she adjusted his winter cloak, then picked up his backpack and her bag. Adanya left the bakery while carrying him, giving a pleasant smile to the woman at the counter.

When they came out, the guardians noticed. "Excuse me, ma'm, but is this your car?"

"No," she said politely. "Excuse me, but my son is worn out."

The guardian smiled at them and waved. "All right, have a good day."

The wind was cold and biting, with droplets of moisture starting to spit down. But X felt way too tired to even shiver. Way too tired for just having been through a school day. His head injury didn't even ache anymore. 'What's going on?' the child wondered, nervous although not yet panicking.

'She must be the spider,' the adult said. 'She must have drugged you with whatever was on that cloth.'

'What? No! She wouldn't hurt me.' But he felt desperate to believe that himself now. She had lied about the car, right to the guardians. But Roll seemed to trust her.

Sighing, Adanya shifted X to keep a hold of him. "Dammit, why does it always have to be difficult with you and your father? If I had been told you were a white mage, I would've used the stronger sleeping potion right off."

"Mom?" he managed to ask. Not loudly, as he didn't seem to have the energy for that either.

"Shut up," she grumbled. "You're a loon, you know that? Even though they told me why, I still can't believe you just came with me like that. We couldn't stand each other those last few months. But you just had to be the needy little kid and make up some fantasy version of me based on some dumb old book. As if that wasn't annoying enough, you're also an overly mature freak who tries too hard to be like an adult. Make up your mind already."

Maybe it was someone pretending to be his mother? But the child knew that was impossible, since he had felt it. He felt a highly irrational wish that it was possible. "But…"

"I don't want to hear you talk anymore," she said, as sharp as the winter wind around them. "The only reason I even agree to this is because Master Wily promised me a high price on this mission. But he wanted you back alive, hear? Not unharmed. So don't push my patience. You could have at least saved us all the trouble and died in Shadow Palace. Well, all of us except that finicky bastard Ikari…"

A few minutes later, Adanya had arrived at a parking garage. She went inside and stole another car to get to where her actual get-away vehicle was stored. But X had fallen asleep by then.

"Thank goodness you're finally quiet," she grumbled as she put him in the passenger seat and hooked up the safety belt. Then she took off for across the city.

* * *

March '54

Zero had been away for three minutes.

In their hidden room, X paced and fretted about his friend's safety. Any number of things could happen to him. One of the roaming monsters might try to eat him. One of the Dark Hunters might show up and decide to abuse him for fun. As the library shelves were so tall, one of the heavier books might fall on him and hurt him badly. And hundreds of other dangers.

But those hundreds of other dangers were keeping him here. If he thought about them long enough, or about that mirror, he would freeze up and find himself incapable of doing anything. That was exactly why Zero had left: someone had to get their daily supplies and after yesterday, X just wanted to hide away in some safe spot and never come out again. But if Zero got in trouble out there, it would be X's fault.

His mind seemed to throb and his body ached. It was all just stress, X knew that. It didn't make him feel any better. At this point, the only thing that could make things better would be if they were rescued. Then he could be with his mother. She could comfort and protect him, love him and treat him how he deserved.

Right?

Some doubting thoughts clawed into his mind, reminding him of very vicious arguments. He tried to point out that the books said that he needed a proper body before he could leave her mind, but she snapped back that he was being too picky and what he 'wanted' was way too expensive to bother with. After a long time, the issue was resolved when she sold him to Master Wily…

Grimacing, X fought back against that nightmarish image. That couldn't be true. His life wasn't so horrible that his own mother hated him. In his books, he had read of loving and supportive families. That was normal. Somewhere out there, he had to have a mother who loved and missed him, maybe even mourned for him. But if he could get to her, everything would be okay.

Yes, yes… that had to be true. It calmed him for a moment. But then it was almost five minutes and Zero still wasn't back.

After another two minutes of fretting, the other boy did come back into the room. He looked happy. "I've got the stuff. They even gave us another jar of peanut butter!"

X smiled weakly at him, still feeling tense with stress. "Great. We'll be okay for a while then."

"The librarian dragon said he was worried about you," Zero added as he put the bag down by the cabinets. "Are you doing okay?"

"Better than I was," X replied, looking at the floor.

"Oh. Um, well…" Zero clenched his fists. "I wish there was some kind of aging spell you can find. Because then we'd be able to fight those terrible Hunters. I could protect you if I was that strong."

"That might not be a good idea," X said, still not looking at him. "It could make unpredictable effects, a spell to change things that much."

"But things have gotten really bad. I want to be able to do something about it."

They've been bad for a long time, X thought. But Zero had never realized it.

* * *

February '52

In the last chapter of the book, the little boy had his sixth birthday. His parents invited over a bunch of his friends for a picnic party, and they had delicious yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting, and vanilla ice cream, and fresh milk. They played games and gave out lots of good presents. And at the very end, the parents gave the boy his first bicycle, which he had wanted since the very beginning. They loved him dearly, even though he made mistakes.

The book was gone now. It was X's first birthday, and for that, Quint had burned his favorite books. After only a few minutes, there wasn't even ash left, as even that had been taken from him. There would be no party for him, no treats or games. Instead, he was curled up in the green armchair, feeling miserable.

'I wish I could have been the boy in that story,' X thought. Then he could have had such loving and forgiving parents as the boy Robin did. Not the spiteful and malicious reploids around him. Maybe his real parents were that way.

Something in him disagreed, but for the moment, X tried to push it away, hide it somewhere in his mind. He wanted to be comforted now, and he used to always read that book for that. Now, he could only dream about it. He could indulge in that bit of fantasy, couldn't he?

Some soft crying started in the room. Zero had awoken; he was pretty quiet most of the time. Maybe he was hungry.

While he normally accepted his duties with patience, the crying made X cross today. "When I was your age, I could feed myself," he grumbled bitterly.

That didn't stop the six-month-old reploid from crying, though. If anything, the tone made him apprehensive, giving him another reason to cry.

X sighed. "Of course, I'm an unnatural freak. You're just normal."

A loud thump at the door made the room go quiet. "Hey keep him quiet or we'll beat you as usual!"

Zero whimpered.

"I'm working on it," X replied, getting out of the chair to figure out what the infant wanted.

* * *

November 16, '54

This couldn't be real. It had to be some nightmare. While in his dreams, the child X escaped into his inner sanctuary, a place he only let good memories and things into. Here, he could be safe. He opened his mind's eye and found himself in his safe room once again. Sometimes reality got to be too much for him, but this imaginary place was good. "I'm safe, I'm safe, I'm safe…"

"X?" his mother's voice called out.

He looked up and saw his imaginary mother. Good, she was okay. She was as he remembered him. "Mom, horrible things are happening."

"Damn you and your father," she replied.

Focus on good things. "No, no, you're not that way. You love me, I'm precious to you."

She seemed to be glitching. Wasn't that impossible? A memory bubble drifted in and found her. "Why are you still in there?" she screamed. "God damn, why do you have to be so difficult? That body was just fine; you don't need those finicky details. Just get out so I can get paid!"

X felt a panic. "No, no, get out! This is my safe spot, no nightmares are allowed. Get out!"

However, even this image had gone bad. "Is this your safe spot, or do you just not know any better? Needy child, overly mature… make up your **** mind." She glared at him. "You could have saved us all the trouble and died in Shadow Palace."

The child sensed out his thoughts and this was the place he'd hidden in for the past few months. As he did, he heard buzzing sounds. Why was that? He had spent a long time constructing this imaginary place. It was based on any secure place he'd ever been in, and after the mirror, he needed security sorely. Then at his imaginary mother's silent command, the peace was torn apart. Dozens of sharp blades came into his dreams, spinning so rapidly it hurt his eyes. His peace turned chaotic and all the comfort turned into thorns.

"All lies fall apart," she recited, from a book X had read to Zero several times. "When you construct your life from lies, it all comes apart."

Child X looked out into the mindscape. "My maze!" He had constructed the maze to keep his inner monsters trapped on isolated paths. But the image of Adanya clapped her hands and the maze posts shattered. The paths reconnected themselves and monsters appeared. Worst of all, images of the Hunters located him quickly.

"You orchestrated this disaster yourself," the image of Adanya said. "You drew me out of a book and not the truth. This is the truth."

"Everything's dangerous," he whispered.

"Everything's dangerous," she echoed. "Especially me."

"I messed up again," the child said. Then he burst into tears.

* * *

Eastern Monsteropolis

Night had fallen, bringing with it a snowstorm. The frosted winds whipped through the streets, keeping most people inside. But under the humming streetlights, there were a few stray people trudging through the new snow layer. A wolf's howl pierced through the air.

Wolf? Rock looked up from the sidewalk, but couldn't work up the concern for the wolf in city limits. He always associated wolves with one particular person. Yet, even that couldn't bother him.

Stopping, he looked down at his hands. His fingers were stiff. But he didn't feel the storm's cold in them. The curse caused a far worse cold within his mind. What was he out here for anyhow? X was gone. He had left with Adanya. Even at this late hour, no one knew where they were.

While he was doing that, a piece of paper flew into his arm and stuck there for a bit. Rock took it and noticed it was a prayer slip. 'Bring me good luck in finding my family, my love'. Who had lost that? And what did it mean to him?

X had chosen Adanya over him.

So what did it matter anymore? Rock didn't cry though, and just stuffed the slip in his pocket absent-mindedly. He couldn't cry, and hadn't for over three decades. What did it matter? If he froze out here with the storm, he didn't mind. He wasn't really suffering under the Soul Winter curse unless he fought it. But he wasn't really living either. So far, Blues or Roll had always pulled him away from giving in to it. But they weren't here now. And X was gone. Nothing would change if he let it freeze him completely.

"You are really in terrible shape," a sharp voice spoke, right beside his ear.

Rock looked over and saw a dark armored reploid next to him, with a dagger to his throat. But that threat barely registered. "Forte?"

He snorted. "I could have killed you at any point in the past fifteen minutes, you realize. But then you don't even care."

"I don't," he admitted. "I don't know why I try sometimes." He took the hand that had the dagger.

But Forte snatched it away. "Then it doesn't matter if I tell you that I know that Adanya tricked and drugged up X. And that I know where they are."

Tricked and drugged? Rock's anger finally came back to him, crashing through his internal chill. Forte had started walking away, so he dashed ahead to grabbed him. "You know?"

"I've actually been looking for them," he countered. "But then I don't have to deal with some curse trying to kill me through total apathy. She's taking him to the south gate leaving Monsteropolis to meet up with a group of Wily's reploids. The guards there are loyal to the city, but they're also going to be completely fooled by her tactics."

The south gate. Rock knew that even off-duty, he could get into the Guard's teleport system and get to the south gate in seconds. But there was one troubling part about this. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked Forte. "Wouldn't you want me dead?"

"Ask me later," he replied in a scolding voice. "Go now or you will lose him forever."

Which would let the curse engulf him. No, he had to hang onto his anger. "Thank you," he said to his most persistent rival, and then linked into the Guard's system to get to the south gate.

Still in the deserted street, Forte nodded. Still, he was concerned. If this was Rock in his normal state, then he'd almost pity Adanya for what she would get. Almost; she most certainly deserved to face an angered and protective Rock at full ability. But no, he was cursed, and that left things uncertain.

Forte gave a howl to his wolves, letting them know what to do. Then he hacked past the teleport limits and followed Rock to the south gate.

* * *

The adult X was trying to make contact with his child self again. But it was harder to navigate the mental space again. It used to be highly organized and logical. Now, it was a total mess. As he'd suspected, the child's situation was fragile and once something else he was certain of was gone, it had shattered. The freed memories gave the adult a better feel of the situation, though.

Reviewing what he knew, it seemed that Adanya had sold X to Wily, perhaps even before he was fully born. Her relationship with Rock must have gone sour at some point before that, if it hadn't been rigged in the first place. X's body was then built by Wily's labs and although they seemed to have done that well, they had treated the child with utter contempt after that.

At some point before X's first birthday, they had gotten Zero as well. It seemed that reploid children could recognize their mothers by instinct, but not their fathers without extrasensory magic like X had. The child Zero remembered his father, so he must have been fully kidnapped. The reploids who were watching over X also watched over Zero, but they forced X into being the younger child's main caretaker. X's highly developed intelligence helped him do that, but it put a massive amount of stress on him.

He adapted to the responsibilities, but then something happened in March of this year. The adult didn't quite have a clear picture of it, but X had been made to watch some cursed mirror that made him extremely paranoid. Around the same time, the Fire Dragon came into their lives. The child Zero seemed to know something about it, and maybe child X too, but they weren't telling the adults so far. Some time in May or June, the two boys had worked up the nerve to escape by way of Shadow Palace, a risky move but one they felt was their best hope. Then the adults came to them as spirits, and their story together had begun.

In all that, child X had used his memories of an old book for moments of escape in bad times. It had become enough of a crutch that he began to think it was real, including replacing his memories of his bitter mother with that of the book's sweeter mother. So he had denied all those warning visions in favor of his escapist dreams. Now his crutch was destroyed and the child was overwhelmed by everything.

And it was an awful lot to go through for someone not even four years old, the adult reflected. He really wanted to help.

"You do?"

There he was. "Yes, I truly do."

* * *

Back at the Light's house, child Zero had calmed down some. He was still worried about X and Rock, though, so Roll had yet to bother him about it being too late. Instead, she let him stay with her in her office. The adult spirit had been resting most of this time, as his fight with the Fire Dragon had worn him down. But he was stirring as the child was trying to talk himself into believing that X would come back.

"X is probably gonna be acting different when he comes back," Zero told Roll.

"Why do you think so?" she asked, pausing in her work to listen.

"Cause he's not really as brave as he acts lately. I mean, he used to be really brave; I remember, just after I turned two, he shot a fireball at Enker because he was yelling at me. And he didn't even deny it when he got mad at him."

"That is very brave."

Zero nodded. "Yeah, he was like that. But then, they locked him in a room with some evil mirror for a whole day."

"An evil mirror?" she asked in concern, as if she suspected something.

He looked down at his feet, which were swinging off the floor. "Yeah. And after that, he was afraid of everything, even stupid stuff like thumbtacks. But even though he said it was stupid, it still scared him. Sometimes he wouldn't do anything for days, just hiding in a corner and hardly sleeping or eating. That didn't help us much, so he started pretending stuff to stop thinking of those fears. That's how we got out of Ikari Tower and how he's been living here, pretending stuff so that he's okay. But I could tell it was starting not to work a little while ago. And one of the things he pretended was being with his mom, who he thought was very nice."

"I see. So he's going to be scared again."

"I hope he finds something else to be brave with, but yeah, that'll probably happen."

They stopped talking again, but the child Zero was thinking on things still. Like something that had happened before the mirror.

* * *

March '54

Hiding behind a column, Zero watched the monster. It was snuffling some basket that was on the floor. What was in that basket? The great furry beast licked its licks, then nudged it with its nose. So was it food?

Feeling brave today, Zero glanced around and found a stone nearby. He picked it up and threw it past the monster. The dimwitted thing turned to see what the clattering noise was, shuffling off to find it. Meanwhile, Zero ran out from behind the column and snatched the basket. It was tough, since a blanket hung from the handle and it was heavy for him. But he managed and started running back to the library with it.

The monster lost interest in the stone and turned back to the basket in time to see Zero running off with it. It roared, nearly causing him to trip. Something in the basket started crying. Trying to hurry, Zero went to the side a bit, so the column was in the way.

Then a bright streak of magic flew past him and struck the monster. It roared again, but this time in pain. Ahead, Zero saw X by the library doors. "Come on!" he called.

"I'll be there!" He kept hold of the basket as he escaped the hall and entered the safer library.

"You have to," X started to warn him, but then noticed the crying. "What've you got?"

"I dunno," Zero admitted. "The monster was gonna eat it, I think." He took off the blanket.

Inside, there was an infant reploid with lavender hair. Wincing at the change of light, the baby tensed up and kept crying. X crouched down by the basket. "I see. It's a good thing you saved him then."

"I wonder what he was doing out there by himself. What's his name?"

"Um…" his eyes went hazy as they did when he was focusing on his mind powers. "He's Equinox. He's only a few days old, maybe four of them. Hush, Equinox." He gently rubbed the baby's chest, trying to calm him down.

"So he's kind of like us then? Are we gonna take care of him?"

"Maybe. I'll have to ask about it."

Zero looked back into the basket. Equinox had stopped crying and instead was looking at them unsteadily. "Huh. Was I like that when I was little?"

"Of course." X smiled. "You were even smaller than him."

"What? No way!"

That made X laugh. "You were. You were like…"

"What are you two doing with my son?" a harsh voice demanded. Ballade snatched the basket from them.

X got back up promptly. "We found him out in the hallway, sir. A monster was thinking about eating him."

"What? Quint!" He stormed out of the library, taking Equinox with him.

"That was Ballade's son?" Zero asked, puzzled.

"I don't see how anything that cute and innocent could come from one of them," X agreed. "Well if he is, they'll probably be taking care of him. And I suppose they'd do so better than they treat us."

Zero sniffed. "Well lucky him."

* * *

November '54

The south gate of the Monsteropolis wall was normally a quiet part of the city. Because the greenhouses took up much of the space, there was nothing else in the area. The snowstorm was predicted to last all night, so few people would be on the roads. Knowing that, the four workers in the gatehouse weren't expecting much to happen.

The radio technician listened. Then he shook his head. "No, they aren't responding to my hails. I wonder what that caravan is doing out on a night like this."

"Any weapons on their vehicles?" a female Guardian asked.

"Can't tell with the wind blowing like it is," he replied.

"I've got a field wagon heading this way," another worker said. "And it might…" there was a beep. "Yup, they're asking to leave."

"What?" the male Guardian asked. "If I were them, I'd postpone any trips until the storm passes. This is going to be nasty weather to travel in."

"Check the IDs on who's in that wagon," the radio tech suggested. "We do still have that alert for that Piaso criminal and the missing child."

"Doing that…" the security tech watched as the computer ran its checks. "No matches. There's two reploids in there."

"No matches? That's weird."

The male Guardian stood up. "Well let's go check them out. Any weapons?"

"Nothing that comes up on the scanners."

"Good." The two human Guardians then left the gatehouse to greet the field wagon.

"Hey there," the woman called out, waving to the reploid woman in the driver's seat. When she stopped, the Guardian added, "Bad night to be heading out."

"I know," she replied, giving a smile of patience being tested. "I talked to the caravan leader, but he insisted that we couldn't delay. I don't know when we'll get another chance to go to Raitslyn."

"May I see your immigration papers and IDs?"

"Sure, here you go." She handed over a packet of papers.

The female Guardian skimmed over them while her male peer looked over the wagon for any suspicious signs. Neither of them saw the second reploid. "At least you've got a good vehicle to be traveling in," the man said.

"That's one good thing."

In the papers, it noted that this was Jane Freeland and her son Jake who were moving from Lanchester up north to the distant city of Raitslyn. The female Guardian didn't miss that this was a woman and a boy, like the reports that had been issued earlier today. However, all the papers looked good, with official markings and signatures. "I'm sure it can't be that bad to get to…"

"Hold it!" A man's voice broke through the night.

"We've got an unmarked teleport," the security tech reported over the radio.

Then a fellow Guardian, the reploid Rock Light, came up by the female Guardian. He glared at the woman. "Adanya, you're not leaving with him."

"Sorry, you have me mistaken for someone else," the woman reploid said.

"Aren't you supposed to be off-duty, Rock?" the woman asked. "And she is right; she's got official papers…"

"They're faked, I'm sure," Rock insisted. "She's working with Dr. Wily and I will not let her leave this city."

"I have to leave soon," she said. "The caravan leader I'm with is very impatient."

"They're still not talking with us," the radio tech replied to that.

Knowing that she wouldn't hear their radio chatter (and maybe not Rock either), the female Guardian said, "We've noticed them, but they aren't being cooperative." Since she had been wondering something herself, she added, "May we check on your son? He's been rather quiet and I know any one of my kids would be scared to go outside the walls on a night like this."

"I've given him sleeping pills," she said, reluctant to admit that, but more reluctant to let them see him. "The note from his doctor should be in there."

Unfortunately for Adanya, X had started waking up. Although groggy, he heard what was going on outside. "Dad?" he asked, too softly to be heard by any of them.

'Go leave with him, if you can,' the adult suggested.

X got up while the group was still arguing. The bandage around his forehead was no longer emitting healing energy, but there wasn't much pain from that injury now. He noticed the bracelet still on his wrist, so took that off before picking up his backpack and going to the front of the wagon. When he did that, the gate's scanners were finally able to match a match based on his RIN code.

The security tech quickly told the rest. "We've got a change; the boy has been identified as X Light. There's some kind of blocking magic going on; I'll attempt to get a positive reading on her based on that."

The male Guardian quickly came up with the excuse, "We're just concerned about the child, m'am. If you'd let us check on him and make sure it's safe, we'll let you leave." Obviously they couldn't, but once they had the child, it would be easier to arrest the woman.

Trying to hide her aggravation at the day's events, she turned back to look in the wagon. X stopped just in front of her, blank on what to do next. Fed up now, Adanya got up and yanked on X's collar, getting a tight grip on him. "If you think I care about this brat's safety," she hissed, "then you're dead wrong."

"That is X," Rock said, momentarily gladdened to see him, but then frantic as he wasn't sure what to do. Did she have any weapons on her? Even if she didn't, she was a masterful magic wielder herself. What could they do without hurting X?

The other Guardians were caught in the same problem. Adanya used that to stay her ground. "I have to deliver him alive, but if you don't let us out now, I won't hesitate to cause him excruciating pain. So back off and…" her words were cut short as she slumped over, dragging X down with her. A dagger was jammed through her skull plating, although no one else was in the wagon with them.

Quickly, the female Guardian raised a shield against thrown projectiles before jumping in and pulling X out. The child was still drowsy, but Rock soon knelt down and hugged him. The two technicians got to work. "I'll call for some more Guardians to see if they can find who threw that," the radio tech said. "And I'm going to port the two of them to a hospital to get checked out if they're okay with that."

"Can't locate the killer precisely, but I can give you a general direction," the security tech added.

The male Guardian had gotten in the wagon to see if he could spot anything or anyone, while the woman stayed with the other two. "We're going to send you straight to the hospital if you need it."

"Yes, that probably should be done," Rock said. He had a good idea about who had thrown that dagger. It was even more mystifying than his actions earlier, but somehow Forte was on their side this time.

"I did something stupid," X said quietly to his dad. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be," Rock replied. "I'm just glad to have you back safe."


	18. Aftershocks

November 17, XX54

Light household

Rock sat in Roll's office, while she and the psychiatrist discussed his condition. It had been agreed last night that it was better for the two of them to go home for a quiet night. And even today, they were keeping the boys home from school, in hopes of things settling down from yesterday.

"According to his statements, Rock underwent a major deterioration, followed by an equally great recovery," the doctor said. "A fluctuation of this magnitude indicates that the curse is weakening, and it will have weakened it even more. Since we want him to remain on the recovery, I'm going to prescribe him some medicating programs for two weeks." He turned to Rock. "You need to monitor your condition closely while doing so. If it worsens greatly, stop using the programs. After the two weeks, we'll meet to consider what to do next, like if we can attempt an unwriting of the curse."

He nodded. "All right."

Roll interrupted. "While you're here, may I ask you something about X? You are working with him too."

"That I am. What about him?"

"Last night, Zero told me that X has looked into an evil mirror that causes numerous fears. He supposedly got shut in with it for hours, but I didn't get an exact time."

"Back in the Tower?" the doctor switched over to his files on X. "Hmm… I'll have to look into it, but that does match some symptoms. He doesn't show full-blown paranoia."

"He also said that X was using pretending and delusions to get around it," Roll offered. "And he does have panic attacks with seemingly little provocation."

"I'll speak with him myself about it. Still, a worrisome thing. It sounds like the Paranoid Mirror, but we thought it had been destroyed and scattered. If Wily's forces have put it back together, or made a workable copy, it'll take another great effort to destroy it again."

"What can be done about that curse?" Rock asked.

"Some people can adjust to life with a cursed paranoia under medications and carefully structured schedules. It's a tricky one to unwrite, since it matches so well with paranoid schizophrenia. In many cases, we have to mutate it into a different curable curse, wait a period of forty days to make sure it sticks, then cure that one. Mutating curses is still a dangerous cure, as I'm sure you know."

"Well if I'm recovering, then please focus on X's curse before mine."

The psychiatrist then decided to talk to X while he was there. An hour later, he met Roll and Rock in the entryway. "About X's curse, there may be a complication to undoing it."

"What's the problem?" Roll asked.

"He didn't admit to seeing the mirror, but then added that his older curse was linked to a sacrificial curse, which was linked to another on Zero. He believes that if we were to try modifying the paranoia curse, we would trigger the sacrifice magic and kill both of them."

"Can that be done?" Roll asked, looking between her brother and the doctor.

"Dr. Wily could have done that," Rock said.

"He'd be one of the few who could. I'll do some research, but X also says that the secondary curses have an expiration date of sometime in March. So we may just have to wait the magic out."

* * *

Zero was in X's room; the child was glad to have him back and the two adults agreed it was best to stay together. "What do you want to do today?" child Zero asked.

"I don't know," child X replied. "Look, I'm sorry about hiding. I just thought it might be better if…" he then cut off not sure if he wanted to speak that thought.

"Well you were real scared," child Zero said. "I got real scared yesterday too. I thought that if you didn't come back, they might get rid of me. But they aren't going to do that, to either of us. I'm sure of that."

"That's good." He brought his knees up and wrapped his arms around them.

"So um…" the child looked around, but Zero didn't spot anything immediately to do. Then he thought of something. "Oh, I know something. Our, um, guardian souls? You adult spirits."

"Yes?" the adult X asked.

"I wanna know what your world was like, like what kind of magic you have there and what you guys did. Cause I never thought there'd be other worlds until I found out about it from you."

"We didn't have magic in our world," adult Zero said. "I didn't think it was real until we came to your world. And I also didn't think there were other worlds until this happened too."

"How do you not have magic?" child X asked, relaxing some due to his curiosity. "Magic is the source of life and life is the source of magic. You can't have one without the other. And reploids are highly advanced golems, which are object animated by magic. So you can't have reploids without magic."

Then he smiled; or more correctly, his adult self smiled. "Our world believes life is based in science, in biochemistry. Unless we're all like your friend Ash and simply deaf to the magic of our world. I suppose that could happen. But it's equally likely that we just have no magic."

"And reploids came from science too," adult Zero said. "We are highly advanced computers there, run by the programs written by our creators."

"Run by programs?" child Zero asked. "But how do you have all the space for all the writing? I mean, to make something like a reploid's mind, you'd need a massive library of books to get it right, right?"

That made the others laugh, and it was child X who explained, "Well even in our world, you can write extensive programs on teeny tiny crystals, so they don't really need that much space."

"It's still weird that you guys don't have magic. So what did you do there, huh?"

That caused some tension. Adult X answered. "We were Maverick Hunters. Our jobs are to find and arrest bad reploids, in a general sense."

"Like the police and the City Guard?" child Zero asked.

"No, more like the Snow Patrol. We had to be dispatched throughout the world."

"And we've been the top Hunters throughout the history of the group," the adult Zero added. "I've been with them almost since their foundation and X joined not long after me."

Child Zero grinned. "Wow, so you guys really are like awesome guardian spirits. See, we'll be okay with them with us, X."

Child X scratched his head. "It is great, but… well why do you feel so nervous in school?" He had nearly said guilty and the adult X recognized that.

Zero was the one to answer that. "It's because a lot of people exist in both worlds, not just us. Some of the people around school were the mavericks we had to deal with."

"But it wasn't always their fault," X added. "We had a virus in our world that caused reploids to become violently insane. Sometimes we knew the reploid was innocent, but the virus was driving them to be malicious."

"I see," child X said. "We have some viruses too, but they mostly make us sick or lock up until they can be removed. The worst viruses, like some variants of the Pandema virus, can corrupt a reploid's data so much that they pretty much die, or become vegetables."

"That's awful," child Zero said.

"That is," the adult said right after. "But the Maverick virus, it was kind of like the Fire Dragon."

The others tensed at that. "What, really?" child Zero asked. "So your mavericks would kind of get like I do, all crazy under a temper and then not really remember what happened later on?"

"Is it really like that?" the adult X asked.

"I can't say for certain it is the same kind of thing," the adult Zero answered. "But it has the same uncontrollable hate fueling it. When I struggled with it yesterday, it gave me a sense that it wanted to destroy everything with its fire, even reason. But knowing that, I can counter its actions better. I should be able to help you keep it from taking control."

"That's good," the child Zero said. He clenched his fist, then looked at the other. "X, I wanna tell them about the Fire Dragon."

"Are you sure about that?" the child X asked in concern. "It's not a nice story."

He toyed with his hair nervously, but the others were quiet, not suggesting anything else to do or talk about. "I know it's not, but… I think he's seen enough of my memories to know what happened with the evil mirror. And maybe your guardian too. And they've said they need to know more about this stuff in order to know what to do. They know lots about bad people and stopping them, and stuff, so we should let them know."

"I guess you're right," child X said. Then he let go of his knees and took Zero's hands. "Here, but I think I can do better than just telling them. I think we can share our memories."

* * *

April 1st, '54

Ikari Tower

Punk knocked Zero to the floor. "Back off, runt. This has nothing to do with you."

In his other hand, he was holding onto X's arm tightly. The black haired child trembled as he tried weakly to pull away. "B-but I don't want to do this anymore!"

"Tough luck, you don't get a choice." He then dragged X out of the library, ignoring any further protests.

Getting back to his feet, Zero felt ashamed and angered. He ran out the library doors and looked down the hall. Punk was taking X up some stairs. Thus far, Zero had never gone that far past their area. But he wanted to help his friend. This time, he followed them.

The stairs were something of a challenge for him to climb. By the time he'd gotten to the top, he couldn't see them anymore. But he could hear X's cries and the occasional insult from Punk. Zero ran after that; daydreams of breaking into their activities, rescuing X, and then escaping this terrible place ran through his head. He'd be a hero after that and people couldn't tease him for being such a small child anymore. That, and they'd be away from these horrible reploids. The books said that most people weren't so bad. The two of them just had the awful luck of finding all the evil ones.

Eventually, he lost track of them. Zero listened and thought he heard crying from another level up, so he climbed up those stairs. By the time he got to the top, he felt worn down. And, it was silent.

Where was he? He tried to remember all the stairs and twists, turns, and doors they had taken. But he couldn't. How did he get back to their room? X had said that if they wandered off too far, they'd get in big trouble.

Feeling fearful, he looked around. This area was a lot nicer than their own. A large metal door had stood at the top of the stairs, but it had been left open. Instead of bare rock, the floor was covered in soft white carpet. The walls were painted a creamy off-white and decorated with large photographs of places, machines, and robots. Other decorative objects were in locked glass boxes, like jewels, golden sculptures, and antiques.

This didn't seem right. X had never mentioned a place like this before. For a moment, he thought about calling out his friend's name. But if they caught him here, he'd surely be punished severely.

"It seems I have a visitor," a calm voice said from behind him. "Zero."

Jumping in fright, Zero spun around and wound up tripping over himself. He looked up to see someone very unusual for this place: a human. He was odd too, with white skin and black hair. Feeling his face blush in shame, he stammered, "I-I I'm sorry! I j-just got lost and I didn't mean to be here, and…"

"Calm down," he said, pulling the child up with his gloved hands. "I know you got lost on accident. There isn't any other way you could have gotten up here." He then gestured to the door, which obediently began to close.

Now something really bad was going to happen. Zero backed up into the wall, glancing about to see if there was any other escape route. "Wh-what do you want?"

"Immediately? Nothing much, I'd just like to talk with you as my guest. Please, come with me. I am Ikari Domino, one of the masters of the tower." He then turned back and walked to a nearby room.

Knowing it was better to be obedient when someone was acting like this, Zero followed after him. They entered an office that was filled with many strange things, more of those locked glass boxes with strange artifacts inside. But the one that drew the child's attention was the box on the gray metal desk. It had an orb of fire inside, emitting a strong aura of magic. And if he could feel it, Zero knew that it was intensely powerful. As he watched it, it seemed to be moving not as fire, but as a living creature.

After sitting in the large chair behind the desk, Ikari offered him a small bowl of coconut-coated cookies and a half glass of milk. Zero felt bashful at that. No one offered them cookies. But then, they did smell tasty. He tried one; it was an exotic flavor to him, all buttery and coconut-ty, but it was a little dry. But that made it good with the milk. "Thank you," he said quietly, sitting in the chair by the desk.

"You're welcome," Ikari said. "I don't often have a guest around. But I have wanted to speak with you. How do you feel?"

"I don't know," he replied, fidgeting some. "I got lost so I'm scared, but I'm also confused. You're one of the masters and I'm just a little kid." Then he dropped back into the chair, loosening up some. "I feel kind of weird, actually."

He nodded. "Just relax, it's okay. I put truth serum in the milk and a relaxant in the cookies. You don't have to worry. Except, don't take too many of the cookies; that could be bad for you."

Zero found himself smiling. "Are you joking? That seems weird. I think you're nice, since you gave me cookies." He took another one, since he might not get another chance like this for a long time.

Shrugging, Ikari went ahead and pulled the bowl of cookies back. "I could be, I could not be. It's also part of your psychology, since you're not used to being treated like this. X came with me for the same reason."

"You've talked to X before? He never told me about that."

"He is a very responsible young reploid, but that doesn't mean he'll share everything with you, his ward."

"Oh, like he doesn't talk about what the Hunters keep doing to him." Zero stilled at that thought. "I know they've been doing something awful to him, but I don't know what. When he comes back, he just hides somewhere and cries, or stays where they left him, completely blank. It's terrible. I hate seeing him like this. He used to be so brave and nice, but they've ruined him."

"I see. He used to be your protector when you were scared, but now that he is scared, you are unable to do the same for him."

"I'd like to protect him," he agreed. Tears were starting to form in his eyes. "But I can't. He knows all sorts of magic, but I don't know any, and I'm too little to fight the Hunters. I want to be big and strong, so I can punish them for hurting X like this."

Getting up, Ikari came to Zero's chair and put his hand on the glass box with the orb of fire in it. "You want to help X? Would you do anything to protect him?"

He nodded quickly. "Uh-huh."

"I could help you with that. What I have here is an unusual thing, even in this world. The soul within this box is incomplete; it is only a half-soul, if you will. It requires a whole being, a living person, to connect with in order to unlock its full powers. If you allow me to place this half-soul within you, it would give you magic powers of a very high magnitude. Then you would be more powerful than the Dark Hunters and you could protect X from them."

Zero looked at the orb of fire again. It seemed to be enticing him. "It can do that?"

"Yes. Do you want its power?"

"Yeah, so I can protect X."

"Okay. I can do so easily." He unlocked the box with a snap of his fingers, then pulled the orb out. "Take this and repeat the incantation after me."

For a moment, he hesitated. "Will it burn me?"

"No, this is magic fire."

"Okay." He took it. It felt like feathers being stroked on his skin.

"Now, repeat what I say."

_Soul of fire, spirit of fury,_

_Now grasp my weak soul within your own,_

_Heaven sent one, Hell sent another,_

_I seek your pact of utmost anger,_

_My name is Zero,_

_And I am yours._

* * *

Ikari knelt in front of Zero, back in the library. Rubbing his eyes, Zero wondered why his head felt so murky. "Huh? What happened to the fire?"

"It is within you," the human said, patting his chest. "Just call on the dragon when you need its power. But there is one thing…" he put a finger to Zero's lips. "Don't tell X yet. Let him see the power for himself. And then the magic will be fully interlinked."

* * *

Thankfully, X started showing interest in studying magic again. He still had a tendency to freak out and have a panic attack if something spooked him, but he was doing things. Today, he and Zero were in the hallway outside the library. X was using chalk to draw up a spell calculation he was trying to solve. For this one, he needed more space than their room afforded them.

Zero acted as a lookout, watching for anyone who might interrupt him. He felt good today. Not only was X doing better, but he could protect X now. He had yet to call on the Fire Dragon, but if the Hunters tried to get him, Zero would fight back on equal ground.

"I think I've got it now," X said. Looking over his figures, he focused on the casting. A white glow appeared on his feet. "There. It allows you to walk on top of snow and other fragile surfaces without falling through. There isn't anywhere to test it that I can think of in here."

"Want us to throw you outside, devil child?" Quint asked, appearing in the hall. "Come on, it's time for us to go."

"A-again?" X asked, paling.

"You aren't taking him," Zero said sharply, glaring up at the Dark Hunter. 'Fire Dragon, now is when I need you.'

"Oh?" Quint asked, walking up to him. "And just what are you going to do about it, shrimp?"

"Zero, don't try," X said weakly from behind him.

No, not now. He wasn't going to back down and he wasn't going to be defeated. He had power and wasn't afraid to use it. Ruby red flames engulfed his body.

He thought of X's old self: kind, happy, brave, loving. He thought of X's new self: still loving, but scared, tense, uncertain. He thought of his own fears and traumas. He thought of that horrible day that changed everything, of the evil mirror and rune that turned their poor but happy lives into miserable fearful lives. Zero grew angrier and angrier at every thought, until he seemed consumed by the fires of rage. He lashed out at Quint. The Hunter was thrown back thirty feet. Back up came, first minor guards, then the other Hunters. The Fire Dragon Warrior, Zero, he defeated them all. He made them all pay for years of abuse. He made them pay for all the humiliations he suffered, all the failures, all the tears. But most of all, he made them pay for what they had done to X.

Zero smiled. He was so powerful now. No one could harm X… Wait. Where was X? He looked around. His friend was nowhere to be seen. "X?"

He heard a roar, like a massive fire going out of control. A blast of fire came down the hall. Zero was caught in it, was helpless against it. Helpless… no, not again. He tried to run, but found he was swimming. He swam upward until he broke surface.

He was caught in the lake of fire. Before him was a massive snake-like dragon, with eyes the size of hubcaps and jagged knives of teeth. It bellowed and blew fire in Zero's direction, drowning him once again in fire. He struggled back out, then found a rock to cling to. It was very hot.

"What are you doing?" Zero called. "You're supposed to be helping me."

"Foolish child. I will devour your soul to spread the destruction of fire to the world. You're nothing more than a doll."

"But, but I asked for your help."

"You asked me to devour your soul."

"I didn't say that."

"You did. It is in the incantation."

"I didn't think he meant it."

"Of course it was meant. Why did you say it if you didn't mean it?"

"I didn't know."

"That won't save you." It blew fire again. Zero tried to cling to the rock, but was blasted away. This time the current was so strong he was yanked down to the bottom and he could not regain control. He tried to scream, but his throat burned. He started to cry; his tears were burning.

In trying to be powerful, he'd failed beyond belief.

Seeing the strange spell Zero had somehow cast, X felt terrified. It reminded him of the mirror room. Although it had been erratic in its imagery, one image had repeatedly appeared: that of Zero in an armor of ruby red flames, possessed by a spirit of great hatred. And when Zero turned to face him, that spirit was in control.

"I need to devour more than his soul to come," the spirit said, looking to X hungrily.

Unlike before, X was scared enough by this to take immediate action. He shot a paralysis spell meant to take down an adult reploid at Zero. Then he frantically tried to recall what he knew that could help. "Zero! Answer me!"

He heard X's voice over the flames. "I'm here," he tried to respond, but he felt so hot, so dry…

That is the feeling of summer.

A drop of cold touched Zero's chest. One drop became two, which became many. A cold relief to the fire of rage spread through his soul. The lake of fire calmed, became black, then became light. He heard sobbing. Someone had his head against his chest.

Zero blinked and X came into focus. He was the one sobbing. "X?"

He sat up. "Zero!" He hugged him tightly. "I thought you were gone."

"I thought so too."

"What happened to you? I saw you catch on fire and go crazy."

"I, um… I made a mistake."

"Mistake?"

"I wanted to be powerful, so I could protect you and make sure no one could harm you or scare you anymore. I met a Fire Dragon who promised me that. But he wants to devour my soul instead." Zero shuddered. He hadn't meant for this to happen.

"That's not good. If you lose your soul, there will be nothing left of you."

"I won't trust him anymore, or use his power."

"But he's still with you."

"I'll be very careful." But he still felt ashamed and X looked at him with a touch for fear for days after.

* * *

May 24

If it were possible, Zero would stay with X all the time. But they needed food, and they were given little of that. So he had to go out on foraging missions.

Today had been a good mission. He'd found their favorite, a jar of peanut butter. He'd found a bunch of fresh bananas. He'd found a loaf of bread, still good. Excellent. This should do for a few days. Zero had never had a banana before, but X said it was important to have fruit and vegetables as often as possible, so that if he saw one, he should snatch it.

He peered around this last office, just in case there was something else.

"Are we even going out riding this week?" an annoyed voice said. Zero searched around, then squeezed behind a bookshelf.

"No," a calm voice said. "The astral charts say this is a bad time for us to be out."

"Damn the charts. I'm bored." The two Hunters came in, sat in some chairs, and started work on something. One of them dropped a yellow bag on the floor.

Zero looked at it. It said 'Butterscotch hard candies.' There was something else he'd never had, candy. It showed up in a lot of books, as a sweet thing children loved, but shouldn't have too much of, or they got upset tummies and rotten teeth. But a little treat was okay. Perhaps the two of them even deserved it, after the Fire Dragon mess that had upset their lives some time ago.

At least once a day, Zero caught on fire. If X was around, they could get the flames out and nothing would happen. If he was gone, Zero went berserk and attacked anything that came close until he blacked out. And he had nightmares at night, of drowning in that lake of fire, or being eaten by the dragon. X tried to calm him, but as he was so paranoid himself, they both wound up upset and feeling terribly alone. It was just the two of them in a mean mean world.

So a little nice treat in the middle of a terrible time… it would be good. But how would he get it? Zero watched, looked, planned, then gave up plans. Something…

The one who'd set it down accidentally kicked it. "You klutz," the other said.

"Bah, I'll get it later when we're done. What's the figures for that set?"

Two had fallen right at Zero's feet. He smiled, ducked down and took those two. He watched the Hunters, then darted out as soon as it was safe.

"Did you hear something?" one of them said.

"Stop getting distracted, it was nothing."

Zero ran back to their room. "X, guess what I got!" But he didn't see X. Instead, there was a blanket placed over three of their chairs. Zero put the bag of stolen food goods aside and took out the candies. Then he went under. "X?"

He looked up. He was hugging his knees close to his chest. "H-hi Zero. D-don't take down the blanket."

He sat by him. "What's wrong?"

He put his chin on his knees. "Everything's wrong. It's so dangerous, so dangerous." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I couldn't take it. I want out of this world, so I blocked it out. I don't want to be here anymore."

"We could escape the Tower."

"No, no, the world's even scarier out there."

"X, we have to do something. I don't know what, but if we do nothing, nothing will change. It said so in that one story, right?"

"Yeah, but," he sniffed, "I'm so scared."

"I got something special today."

"You did? What'd you get?"

"I got more peanut butter, some bread, some bananas, and these." He opened his hands to show the golden wrapped treats. "The bag said they were butterscotch."

"Where did you get those?"

"One of the Hunters dropped a bag just full of these things, so I snatched two before he could get them back. Here, you want to try it?" He offered one.

X took it and turned it around. "It's so pretty." He untwisted the wrapper, displaying the brown candy inside. "I've never seen one of these."

Zero unwrapped his. "You try it first."

"No, you."

"But you deserve it."

"You got them."

"Then let's do it at once, okay?"

X nodded, so they both put them in their mouths at once. It was so hard you couldn't bite it, but it made a magnificent syrup go down your throat. "It's really good and sweet."

"I like it."

"But we shouldn't have too many. The books say so."

"I only got two."

"Then that should do." X closed his eyes and was quiet until he'd finished the candy. "You know what?"

Zero was crinkling the wrapper, but looked over. "What?"

"I found something in a book the other day that might help us out. A new rune."

"What's it do?"

"It's hard to explain. I'll just show you. Lay down here."

"All right." He did so. X drew the rune with water on Zero's forehead and then began chanting. It was odd listening to him do incantations. Zero couldn't understand a word of it and had no idea how X knew to pronounce the words just so at just the right timing. But his spells always worked.

Several minutes into the incantations, Zero felt his skin grow uncomfortably warm. Oh no, it was the Fire Dragon. He tried with all his willpower to keep it at bay, but he felt the flares of anger sharply. This time, the dragon was mad at X. Zero closed his eyes and tried to not budge. His skin caught on fire.

X's voice wavered a moment. Zero opened his eyes and knew X was terrified. But he continued on, determined to finish this spell rune. It was his old bravery, or what remained of it.

Then the Fire Dragon burst out. Zero struggled to remain still and down. "Damn you, little oracle! I will tear your heart out and torch your insides."

X closed his eyes and shook, but he kept at the rune chant.

"I'll destroy both of you! You shouldn't mess with beings older and stronger than you. I was meant to…."

The cool magic washed over Zero, like before. The Fire Dragon was shut away. "That wasn't me," he said.

"I know. I thought that would get rid of it. But it only sealed it away."

Zero sat up. "But I feel so much better. It can't do anything now, right?"

"Not unless you call it."

"Then I won't. You look tired."

So tired he could have fallen asleep right there. "I am. That was the most powerful spell I've ever cast. It needed so much aura, so much energy… I was barely able… to complete it."

"Hold on." Zero slipped out, grabbed some more blankets and pillows. "You should go to sleep. Here."

"Thanks."

"No, thank you."

* * *

?

Eurasia crash site

Across the trashed landscape of where the space station had fallen to Earth, they watched each other.

X stood on the rim of the crater, judging the path down that would least hinder him. He wasn't taking any chances this time, wearing his best armor and equipping as many weapons as he thought may be useful. The whole time, he kept the other in his sight.

Zero was inside the crater, deciding what he would do based on what move the other would make next. He wasn't taking chances either and was fully prepared. At this moment, he wasn't listening.

_I had promised that if you fell to the virus, I would be the one to take you down._

* * *

November 17, '54

Light household

"Um, that last one wasn't right," child Zero said after X let his hands go. "I didn't recognize it."

"That came from our memories," adult X said.

"I'm sorry," the child said. "It must have slipped into one of your thoughts and got caught in my spell work."

"So you guys fought once? Who won?"

The two of them looked at each other. "We made it through that struggle," adult Zero said. "And we can make it through this one. We just need to believe in each other."

* * *

It was late, but the snow had finally stopped. Rock went outside and began clearing snow from the sidewalks of their property. In the morning, the hotel guests would be leaving and they would need the way out to be safe. A small area of effect fire spell, along with an anti-ice shield, did the job effectively.

Someone was sneaking up on him. Immediately, Rock raised a deflection shield. "Don't try that tonight."

"That's better," Forte said, appearing in the streetlight as he turned around. "How is he?"

"He's safe, but his paranoia has sharpened. Apparently X may have seen the Paranoid Mirror."

Just on the edge of his hearing, Rock heard the Wily reploid mutter, "I didn't quite have it." But then he shrugged that off. "And her?"

Rock winced. "You killed her. She could have been revived, but the judge allowed us to wipe her core clean. That was you?"

He nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. "She had you stuck in a corner, didn't she? Someone had to do something fast."

"So why did you help me?"

The look in his eyes was sharp. "I wasn't helping you; don't mistake it for that. I was helping X. I picked up the two of them in Balna Forest after they got free of Shadow Palace. Although it wasn't too hard to guess who his father was, X was poisoned and he and Zero were being pursued by the Dark Hunters. All four of them. I don't know what Dr. Wily meant to do with the two of them, but I wasn't about to ignore two kids in need. And I've been watching over them ever since."

Rock nodded. "All right. And why's that?"

"I'm not revealing that much." He paused to listen to a wolf's call. "Now you know. And someone is coming this way, another child. I'll leave that to you." He then vanished in a teleport.

For a moment, Rock wondered how Forte could manage a teleport without permission. But if he was telling the truth, he had been living in Monsteropolis for around three months without being caught. Rock let it slide and went back to clearing the sidewalks. Forte seemed to have the boys' safety in mind and for that, Rock would leave him be.

A couple of minutes later, a boy reploid came wading through the snow. "Oh, Master Rock?"

He nodded to the child. "Yes? It's rather late for a child to be out wandering around."

"I couldn't get out any other time." Stopping by him, he clasped his hands together nervously and bowed. "So, I'm Shield Sheldon Gate. Sandy asked me to walk home with X and Zero the other day, and I said I would, but my dad made me come home directly from school. I wrote a letter apologizing, see?" He handed Rock the letter.

Glancing at it, he could tell it was handwritten. "There wasn't much you could have done, Sheldon," Rock told him. "But it's kind of you to do this."

"Yeah, well, I would have done it…" he glanced around, then came closer and gave Rock a data drive. "Here."

"What's this?" It had no markings indicating what was on it.

"Don't tell anybody that I gave this to you," Sheldon whispered. "But I had to tell someone and well…" he got nervous, then started running off. "Tell them I'll see them in school next time they come!"

He nodded and waved to the boy. "Sure. Be safe going back home."

Sometimes in being a famous hero, he got strange requests like this, pleas for help that had to be kept silent. They didn't usually come from kids, though. Was it something important, or something personal? Rock paused in his chore to hook the drive into his system to find out.

There were no viruses or bad programs lying in wait. Instead, there were a number of data files. Some listed deaths of individuals, from seemingly unrelated things. Some were stasis storage withdrawal statements. And others were plans… plans for a destructive demonstration from some group called the Reploid Freedom Force.

That would have to be stopped. And someone would need to do something about Sheldon, Rock considered. Even if he didn't reveal his sources, the child and his siblings would be in danger when his father's terrorist work was revealed. That would take time, time when he'd be away from X.

And that wasn't good. For a moment, Rock wasn't sure what to do. If he could, he would help both the kids in his charge and these ones who were not. What would his father do in this case?

That gave him an idea.

* * *

There was a knock at his door. Briefly, the curse tried to make him think it was someone out to hurt him. The child X saw the illogic in that and put his book down to answer it. "Yes?"

It was his father. "X, would you come with me for a little while? I'd like to talk with you."

"Okay. Um, what about Zero?"

He looked up from where he'd been playing a video game. "Oh, I'll just go to my room. It's about bedtime already. Good night X, Rock." He took the handheld console and left.

"Good night Zero," X replied. Then he followed Rock down the stairs. When they kept going past the ground floor, he asked, "Where are we going?"

"My dad's office. No one should interrupt us down there, plus there's something I left there."

"The spell boosters? It's kind of late to work on that."

He shook his head. "No, something else. And here." Rock passed over an envelope. "It's from a kid from your school, Shield Sheldon. He wanted to apologize for not being able to walk you home, but it was because his father insisted on going straight home."

"Oh, I see." He glanced at it, then stuck it in a pocket to read later. "He seemed pretty nice, but I don't know what he could have done."

At the second basement, Rock put in a password to open up the doors. Then he had to pull out a key to the first door on the left. "We don't let anyone rent this particular room, so it's pretty much been left alone all these years."

Curious, but slightly afraid of something awful left behind, X followed into the room a few steps, then looked around. It was an organized office, with two file cabinets, a desk for reviewing designs and papers, a separate desk for a large computer array, and several chairs for a small meeting. So nothing dangerous. X sat in one of the chairs, watching as Rock located a disguised safe and started to open it.

So… say something. "I heard from Zero that you wandered off yesterday," X said. "But you seem good today."

"That was my curse," he admitted. "I got lost when I thought you had chosen to go with her, but then I got told that she tricked you."

'Should I be honest?' the child wondered.

'You should,' the adult suggested. 'It will help both of you.'

The child took a deep breath and looked down. After he let it out, he said, "I tricked myself too. I saw all kinds of warnings yesterday… a spider was luring me into a trap. But I told myself that it couldn't be her that was the spider. I just wanted something normal… I mean, I know you're doing your best, but, well…"

Rock got back up. "We've talked about that," he agreed. "But ever since you've come around, I've been thinking and even feeling a lot clearer than before. I only regressed yesterday, and I got right back on track today. With you around, I might be able to beat it myself." He sat by X and smiled briefly. "That would be a burden off my siblings' backs. Especially Blues. I'm not sure if he's done much for himself all this time. Sometimes even we can be too selfless."

"If I help you, then that's good."

"I'd like to help you as well. But I know you've got to be in school, and I've got to be at work. Something potentially big has come up. I'm actually going by headquarters later tonight to help start some investigations. I still want to be there for you, in case something comes up again. So I've got these." He opened his hand up.

The items in his hand appeared to be tiny clips with blue gemstones on them. Sensing some kind of magic from them, he picked out up for a closer look. "What are they? I can tell they're linked, but nothing else."

"These are telepathy stones. It is possible, if two people are close friends for a long time, to establish a permanent telepathic link with someone, where if you want to hear from them, you just have to think of them and speak out with your mind. I've had one with Blues; it's a little difficult for me to use while cursed, but I can at least get his attention if I need him. But it's only possible to have one telepathic bond at a time. However, the telepathy stones will allow a telepathic link to form between people who wear certain twin stones, like these."

"So even if you have your bond with Blues, you could link to someone else with these?" X asked.

He nodded. "Right. I used to use these with Dr. Light when I had to be away for long periods of time. It always helped me greatly if I needed the emotional support. So I want to share these with you now. I have a feeling that we won't be able to talk with them clearly. But we should be able to project a presence."

"What do you mean like that?"

Rock took his hand and squeezed it. "If you feel afraid and reach out to let me know, I can reach back and support you like I am now, as if I were there holding your hand. We can at least try that."

X nodded. "Okay. Does it go on your ear?"

"Yes, right about here." He helped X to secure it, then put the other on his ear. "It's a bit like pretending. Think of me, then send me your feelings.'

He was able to manage that, and there seemed to be an effect when they were in different rooms. But X wasn't so sure about it. What if they were far apart? There was a way to see. X waited until they had said good night, and then he had gone to get ready for bed.

As he did most nights, X took out the touch lamp Roll had given him, turned it on, then put it under his bed. Then he turned the lights out and got into bed. Even with the lamp under the bed, there were still odd shadows and lights it cast onto the lower walls. Feeling his fears trying to creep in, but also feeling tired, X thought about Rock and about those feelings.

In a matter of seconds, he felt a comforting presence reach back. He needed to sleep and most of those fears were either his imagination or his curse. Somewhere else in the city, Rock was in a lobby waiting on a secretary to call someone down. In a way, he was also right there with X, hoping that he would sleep well tonight. And that was real.

It was calming as well. Maybe his mother had been false, but his father truly loved him. X gave him thanks and a feeling of holding hands, still connected when apart.


	19. That Which Sleeps

Nov 24

Cain household

Sigma looked over his holo-battle set. The place was Annapolis. The soldiers were the reploid children he'd talked into joining him so far, as adults. The enemies were the City Guardians led by David Cain. Sigma looked over the map and decided how this future battle should run.

'I couldn't hurt my father,' a soft voice in his mind said.

Sigma muttered and closed his eyes. "But you hate him. I know you do."

Child Sigma sat in a cell in his own mind. In his imagination, there were thick bars wrapped in barbed wire shutting off the only exit to this room. He could sense everything that was going on, but could not control anything. All he could do was speak-think to this mean adult version of himself. "Sometimes he annoys me…" then he shook his head. "No, no, he loves me. I'm his child as much as Roger is."

"He ignores you, he's busy at work all the time, he doesn't even try to understand you… I know you hate him."

"No, I don't! I hate you, though."

"I feel the same," the adult replied. "If I could find a way, I'd erase you and fully claim your mind."

The child shuddered. "No, please don't do that. I didn't do anything wrong."

"You're ignorant and too trusting. That's enough."

"No, don't!"

"Fortunately for you, I haven't found a way to erase you without shutting down your body. Of course, I haven't looked hard, but if you keep irritating me with these ill-conceived thoughts of yours…"

"I'll be quiet," the child said meekly.

"Good. Now don't distract me."

Child Sigma sat in his cell. It was bleak and cold; even though this was his own mind, he couldn't manipulate this area to be nicer. He wrapped his arms around his mental self and sobbed quietly. Trapped in his own mind, by someone who'd erase him without thinking twice…

About a month ago, the adult alien Sigma had figured out that the child's soul was still in this body. Once the discovery was made, he continued the fight from the day he had invaded this body. That had been horrible. The child's soul still felt bruised from that long battle. It had ended a week ago, when the adult figured out how to trap the child in this one cold barren room. Now the adult had full control over the child's body.

But he wanted to do horrible things when the child grew up. The child soul was helpless to stop him. He couldn't even get outside help; the adult handled all his communication. Somehow, the two Ikari kids knew the adult soul. Maybe they could help. But how?

And, given how mean the adult soul was being to them, would they even consider helping him?

* * *

Nov 27

"See you in a while Zero," X said as they got up from the table.

He nodded. "Later."

Zero walked back to his classroom, mentally preparing himself for a weekly spelling test. Spelling used to be no problem for the adult, had been automatic. Now it was a challenge that the child had to face regularly. But even preoccupied like that, he never missed the sound of someone in trouble.

"Leave me alone," Iris was saying in a tone that suggested someone was harassing her. Zero stopped, and then moved closer to her voice.

"Listen to me," her harasser said. It sounded like Sigma. "This is the destined truth. But work with me and you will prosper."

"No, I don't believe you."

Zero stepped into the office hallway where Sigma had her escape route blocked. The office personnel were probably out to lunch. "You don't want to get on my bad list."

Angry and in a mood to bite, Zero grabbed Sigma's shoulder. "Stop scaring her."

"You? What are you doing here?"

"Leave Iris alone."

"You gonna bite me and get in trouble again?" Sigma smiled darkly. "You get another detention so soon, you'll be suspended. Do you want to do that while trying to atone for your mistakes in our world?"

Zero was putting all his mental energy into avoiding his default reaction. So he pulled Sigma back, then pushed him out the door. "You shouldn't mess with a lady."

"She's just a little girl, not..."

He glared at Sigma. He focused on his internal struggle against violence and put it into that glare. Would it work?

Sigma punched him in the chin. Zero threw him out into the hall, making him skid on his bum. Sigma got up, noticed someone coming, then whispered loudly, "I'll get you good someday." Then he ran off.

Smiling, Iris touched his arm. "Thanks Zero. He was being mean to me."

Zero put his hand over his mouth and nodded.

"He was saying some awful lies about you and X, that he was the savior of reploids and you both were going to ruin us all. Said it's proven because you're a biter, and other people are saying to avoid you because you were a biter, but I know better. You don't mean bad things, right? Zero?"

Zero tried to avoid her look, but she stepped in front of him. There were tears in his eyes and blood trickling down his chin. He'd been concentrating so hard on not biting Sigma that he had bitten his own tongue when punched, extremely hard. It hurt horribly. No wonder people called him a monster when he bit them.

Iris gasped and put her hand over her mouth, in sympathy. "Oh my, are you okay? Loretta!" She stepped down the hall a bit. "Nurse Loretta, please come here."

* * *

Zero was back at his base apartment. He flipped through photo albums. He sensed a small movement and thought perhaps it was a maintenance droid. But it was his child self, looking through the photos too.

"These are pretty pictures," the child said. "You've got lots of cloud pictures."

"I like cloud watching. They can be quite interesting, although not many people know about my weather photo collection. I took most of these."

The child nodded. "I see. But if these are your pictures…"

"This is my home, in my world."

He dropped the still-image caster and looked around. "Okay. But why are we here? I thought I was in the hospital."

"You are. That was a serious injury you gave yourself, so they've probably put you to sleep for the repairs. I guess we're in my mind. We might be here a while."

"Yeah. Hey, what was Sigma talking about when he said at… your mistakes in our world? Did he mean my home, or your home?"

"He meant my home, but he was exaggerating, as he often does." Adult Zero put down the photo caster he had and searched for an older one. "Here we are. You recognize the person in this picture?"

Child Zero took the photo cube and looked. "Oh, yeah, this is Iris, only older. You know her too?"

"More than knew her. We were in love."

"That. That's good, I guess."

The adult chuckled. "You're not interested in love right now?"

"Not really. I mean, it's all kissing and icky stuff. And people say all sorts of stupid things when they're in love, at least in the stories X has read to me."

"You'll change your mind in a few years."

"Probably not." The apartment got hazy. "Are we waking up?"

"Most likely."

* * *

December 5th, XX54

Maple Street Elementary School

It was a day off school, but some of the eighth graders and their friends had gathered on the steps. They were going on an optional trip to a local robotics museum. As he'd been looking into mechanics and healing, X was interested; Zero came with him out of curiosity, although not the same sort. Rock walked them to the school before taking off for work. They found Ash, Sandy, Iris, and Hyper on the steps. "Hey boys!" Hyper called, waving to them. "Watch out cause the infinite nerd is coming along too!"

Infinity Mijinion gave her a glare. "That's not so much of an insult when one takes pride in their intelligence," he said.

"You still act annoyed when I call you that," she teased.

"Signas hasn't show up yet," Ash said. "So we're discussing the museum pamphlet." He handed one to X.

"They've got a display on Dr. Wily's machines and magics now," Sandy added, grinning. "That's gonna be awesome. I hope they have a tank."

"That depends on what you define as a tank," Mijinion countered. "Wily had many devices that could quality as an armored vehicle capable of firing heavy weapons, including some robot masters and reploids."

"I mean like a big tank," Sandy said, holding his arms up to demonstrate. "With a huge cannon and treads, and all that tank stuff. I want to see the inside of one of those."

"Are you boys gonna be okay?" Iris asked. "Cause you've seen Wily's stuff before, right?"

"Um, we have," Zero said, sounding worried.

"It'll be deactivated," X said, patting his friend's arm. "So they won't be dangerous. And it'll be all the old stuff, I'm sure."

Iris smiled at them. "Yeah, that's right. I was a bit scared, cause they might have the robot masters on display. But we'll be okay."

One of the short school buses then pulled up in front of the school. Signas pulled down a window in the middle seat to wave at them. "All right, come aboard. We don't want to wait long."

The kids greeted their teacher as they got on board the bus. The very back row had an extra set of seats facing backwards, so their group of friends claimed those seats. After digging in his coat pocket, Sandy brought out a deck of Battlefield cards. "Hey, did you guys want us to show you how to play? We can show you a bit in the time it takes to get to the museum."

"I've watched you play a couple of times," X said. "It does look neat."

"Yeah. I've got one of my awesome cards today too, even though I don't play with it." He took out a card that was kept separate from the rest in its own paper sleeve. "It's really rare, even among the holographic ones. See?"

The card he showed off had a shiny film that gave the image a slight depth. The image itself was of a younger looking Rock, with the blue and silver spell boosters, a blue helmet, and blue armor. Reading the card aloud, X said, "'Robot Master Rock, Black Wizard 4. Increase user's spell power by 50% when in play.' That seems good."

"It's a little above average for a Black Wizard card," Ash said. "If you're building a robot master theme deck, though, that is the best magic boost card you're going to get unless you fudge the theme rules to allow their human creators."

"Well there's also Robot Master Forte, Warlock 4," Sandy pointed out. "He allows double spell casting for three rounds, but then you have to discard him and he can't be resummoned."

His cousin rolled his eyes. "That really drains your resources, so that Forte card has to be saved for later and you'd better have your opponent dead before being forced to discard him. But one of my ace cards is like that hologram, but with Rock as a reploid, which puts him at Black Master with a 200% increase in spell power. Costs more to summon him, obviously, but it's a hard card to take down once it's on the field."

"To get this card as a holographic, you have to get really lucky or pay a lot for it." He put the card back in its sleeve. "So even if it is a good card, I don't play it because I might lose it."

Signas's voice cut down the chatter on the bus. "Okay, so from my class, we have Mijinion, Carol, Hyper, Sandy, Ash, and X. Then we have three guests. Would you introduce them to the class?"

Sandy got up in the seat and turned around the face the class. "This is my little sister Iris here. She's in first grade."

"Good afternoon, sir," she said politely, waving to the teacher.

"Good afternoon, Iris," Signas replied with a nod.

"This is my best friend Zero," X said, as Zero peeked around the edge of the seat. "He's in first grade too."

"Hello sir," Zero said, getting a greeting in response.

"This is my brother Ground Scaravich," Mijinion said, introducing the brown armored reploid next to him. "Scarab's in seventh grade."

"Good to meet you all," Signas said. "I expect you all to be on your best behavior while in the museum. Do not wander too far ahead and follow the instructions of the museum staff. And do not mess with the exhibits unless they are explicitly interactive. Are we clear on this?"

"Yes sir," the kids replied.

"Good. I believe this is it, so let's go, driver."

Now given freedom to start conversing again, Iris smiled at Zero. "It's good that you can talk again."

He grinned. "Yeah, my tongue's all fixed now."

"What was Sigma saying to you?" X asked.

Iris put her hand to her lips. "Well, I don't know if I should be saying such lies."

"But I'd rather know what he's saying. He might tell other people, so we need to know what he's saying so we can counter argue his lies."

"X has a valid point," Signas said, from where he was sitting. "One would think you've been trained for debate."

X smiled shyly. The adult had been trained for debate and the child had snuck a look at those files.

She dropped her hands. "Oh, okay. But I don't believe a word of it. He said you were both from another world, and that in that other world, you had killed everyone in our school. The people of that world became so scared of you that they locked you away in a sub-space prison, never to escape, but the master of Ikari Tower brought you into this world to destroy it. Your appearance heralds the end of this world, but Sigma claims that is not guaranteed, that he has been assigned by the angels to save our world from you. He told me he wanted to save me from Zero, so I had to do as he said. But he wouldn't let me out of the school office and made me listen to him, and if he was really chosen by angels, I don't think he would have had to do that."

"Sigma has an overactive imagination," Sandy said.

"Or not," Signas said. "I have seen a movie recently with a similar plot. Why he would think that would convince anyone is uncertain."

"He's a spoiled brat," Sandy said. "And there's some kids that would believe whatever he said. But hey, thanks for standing up for her, Zero. Even if Sigma made you bite your tongue off in the process."

Blushing, Zero replied, "Well I had to do something."

Signas chuckled. "That is a noble deed to defend a young lady, Zero, so you need not be ashamed of it."

"I guess." Zero then turned to Sandy next to him. "So does this game need math?"

"Some, but it might help you learn it," he replied. "And it's pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Let me show you all the numbers on a card." They ended up talking about the Battlefield card game all the way to the museum. As it was popular with the other schoolkids, it seemed like a good thing to get into. The adults figured that it would help the kids get more involved with other classmates, which would help them out.

The museum itself was a grand old brick building, with tall stone columns at the entrance. A museum guide offered to give them a tour, but Signas declined. "They're eighth grade students, most of them," he told her. "I have some exhibits I want them to see and others that individuals will want to see for their studies."

And the first area he took them was the display of Dr. Wily's technologies. There was a tank, much to Sandy's delight, although they weren't allowed to see the inside of it. But at every exhibit the teacher deemed important, he quizzed his students about the technology and history of the items. That soon turned into an impromptu competition between Mijinion and X, as they kept answering Signas' questions, sometimes with conflicting information.

"The pattern of the blocks disappearing is an attempt to confuse the intruder," Mijinion said to a demonstration exhibit of a group of vanishing stepping blocks. "But it had to be a regular pattern so that the robot masters who worked in the fortresses knew how to get past them on their patrols. But that regular pattern ended up helping Rock when he was raiding those fortresses, because he could discern the patterns too."

"Isn't it because the technology to make such blocks go invisible and intangible was limited at the time?" X asked. "The systems of the time couldn't make all the blocks enter that state at once, so he had to settle for making most of them intangible at one time. And it probably did shift which ones were and weren't to confuse people."

"You're both right," Signas said. "The optimal system would be have all the blocks be intangible all the time, except when someone with the proper activation key approached them. But making something tangible be intangible, or the other way around, is difficult to accomplish. Such traps have not advanced much over time. But then again, there aren't many who are using intangible block traps around these days."

The brainy duel was fascinating in a way. However, Iris grew bored of it at one point and decided to check out another exhibit a short ways ahead. Zero noticed, but also noticed that Sandy was paying attention to X and Mijinion. He decided to follow after Iris, partly so she wasn't off by herself for long.

She stopped by a display of a plasma blade, which was inside a long glass case. The handle had been cut open so that the inner workings could be seen. When Iris pressed a button, the weapon activated, sending out a two foot long green blade. Lights also came on, showing the mechanics at work. "That's kind of neat," she said, letting go of the button. The weapon turned off. She glanced aside and seemed surprised. "Hey Zero, it's you!"

"What?" Zero asked. The others noticed, so they went ahead into a smaller room set off the main area. "Oh, it is… weird."

In a closed off area, there was a robot (or reploid?) who looked almost like the adult Zero. He was over six feet tall in red and gold armor, with long blond hair. His eyes were closed and they had metal supports to keep him upright. However, the armor was different. The adult recognized it as his original armor style, from a very long time ago.

"So they have him on display, do they?" Signas asked, coming into the room. "This would be Zero Wily, the last confirmed creation of Albert Wily. He is a highly dangerous reploid, even inactive like this."

"How is he dangerous when he's never been activated, sir?" Mijinion asked. "That shouldn't be possible."

"It shouldn't, but this one is. When reploids came into being, Dr. Wily upgraded some of his older robot masters and even designed a few reploids in order to try out the technology himself. But in giving his creations some degree of free will, he opened up the possibility of traitors to his army. The one who tried that would be King, who attempted to usurp control of Wily's forces from his master. This infuriated Wily, as you can imagine, and he retaliated by installing strict slave programs into King, perhaps others as well.

"Then Wily designed this reploid, Zero." Signas glanced around, then pointed out a diagram. "He has two subconscious programs which could wreak havoc throughout the entire world. One is a programming virus which, by our best guesses, would spread with unprecedented speed to install something like those slave programs into all it infects. Either that, or it would drive us all insane. The other program is a biological virus which has the same potential spread pattern to create a pandemic among humans."

"So he must have set the biological virus to be released if we try to completely deconstruct him," X said.

"Dr. Wily set both programs to be released if we did that," Signas corrected. "And they can also be released at will if this Zero activates. Dr. Light did everything in his knowledge and abilities to disable and dismantle him, but even he could not do so completely. He is mostly harmless in this state, but he must still be treated with caution."

"Hey, did he just move?" Scarab asked, sounding startled.

"What?" X asked, tensing and backing away from the Zero display.

"Not funny," Ash said sharply.

"Yes, don't joke like that with Dr. Wily," Signas reprimanded. "He isn't known as one of the greatest White Wizards for nothing."

Zero looked at the inactive model. Was it posed a bit differently than when he and Iris walked in here? He wasn't sure. "It's weird that I look like him, and I have his name too," he said.

"Maybe you were based off him?" Mijinion suggested, his smile pretending to be innocent in the suggestion.

"That's unlikely," Signas said. "Dr. Wily never created a reploid child; some of his robot masters looked like children, but never one who was fully a child. Zero Wily had a very definite purpose to his creation, to counter the growth of free will in robotics. Zero Light here has no definite purpose, so you may do whatever you want with your life." He patted the child on the head. "And that is a wonderful gift that all of us reploids share with humans."

Zero smiled up at him. "Yeah, and I'm going to be a hero." He looked back to Zero Wily but noticed that something was definitely different this time.

The reploid on display now had his eyes open. They were sharp piercing blue eyes, and they were looking over the group. And when he met with the child's gaze, he watched a moment longer.

When Zero froze up, Iris looked at the display reploid and noticed too. "Um, sir? He's watching us."

In a moment, Zero Wily had ripped out the supports holding onto him and punched the glass of the display case. Several of the kids screamed and backed up, but the protective glass held up. As alarms began to blare, the reploid in the display case looked over the spread of cracks he created, then slammed his whole body into the case. It held for a second, but then shattered into large pieces.

Signas moved into a defensive position, holding his cane up like he intended to use it as a weapon. "You all get out of here!" he shouted at the kids.

"No," Zero Wily growled in a strange inhuman voice. Ruby red flames spread rapidly, cutting off doorways and blocking off most of the larger display room. Moving awkward, like a marionette with invisible strings, he clenched his fist. "I am incomplete. I must have the sacrifices to be complete."

X took Zero's arm. "Keep the dragon away," he whispered in a frantic tone.

Trembling, Zero tried to back away. "But I feel hot," he whispered back.

Signas attempted to knock the Wily reploid back, but his silver ice slowed his movements. His attempt was met with spell that engulfed the teacher in flames. A short distance away, Ash, Sandy, Hyper, and the two Gate children had come to help. "You aren't taking us as sacrifices," Mijinion said. Scarab summoned a large clod of earth to hurl at Zero Wily, while Mijinion added a myriad of slimy bubbles to slow him down.

Snarling, the Wily reploid dashed at them, kicking the two into other display cases. Sandy and Ash glanced at each other, then attempted their own attacks, the former with Dusty blade, the latter with just his fists. However, they both attacked him at the knees. Zero noticed that it was a pretty decent tactic, as that and Mijinion's slime bubbles were inhibiting the adult reploid's movements. He activated his own Dusty Blade, thinking he might do the same. But the half-soul inside him was burning strongly. 'Give yourself over to my other half,' it hissed.

"No," he forced himself to say, taking a defensive posture that Gage had taught him recently.

Zero Wily turned to them, perhaps realizing that the two of them were his main targets. But before he could reach Zero and X, Signas struck him with a spell that took form of a sparkling light beam. He screamed in pain, then sent another blast of flames the teacher's way.

But that had revealed something to them. One, the ruby flames had managed to melt the silver ice curse that was on Signas, so he was able to dash over and grab X. The second, as he said, "This reploid must be an unholy creature. A White Ring spell of the Life element would stop him completely. I know nothing like that, though."

"Um, uh," X stammered. When he looked, Zero had attacked their enemy's feet. He was soon pulled back by Ash, who set about to guarding him while Sandy tried attack with Hyper as his partner.

"I will guard you, however long it takes," Signas promised.

At that same moment, he felt a strong telepathic encouragement from Rock. He hadn't meant to alert his father, but somehow he had. All that plus his 'guardian spirit' in adult X managed to calm him enough to nod and consider the request. "Unholy… he can't be undead."

"There are such things as unborn demons," Signas said, deflecting a fireball flying their way. "We treat them the same as the undead."

"Oh, then I know what to do." X closed his eyes to focus on the rune calculations. He knew of a spell, Kyrie, which would instantly kill most undead creatures. So would a revive spell, but he didn't know of one as that was beyond his abilities. Kyrie was one of his more complex ones. "I may faint," he warned his teacher, then cast the spell.

A brilliant but misty rainbow arced between X and Zero Wily, passing through the other children without effect. But when it struck its target, it disrupted whatever magic was animating the inactive reploid. He froze in place, then collapsed into a useless heap.

Signas took hold of X, who barely managed to remain alert himself. The flame walls disintegrated and, noticed by only one, the Fire Dragon grudgingly stopped its struggle. Eying it suspiciously, Ash asked, "Is it dead, sir?"

"It was never fully active in the first place, most likely," their teacher said, gently putting X on the floor. "Whoever meant to cause mischief by animating him won't be able to do so again. X, stay there for now. How are the rest of you?"

Mijinion and his brother had been hurt the worst, although Sandy and Hyper had also been struck. It was an unwelcome end to their museum visit, but the City Guard, along with Rock, were soon there to figure out what had happened.


	20. A City Oracle

December 12th, '54

Light household

X knocked on Zero's door. "Hey."

He looked up from what he was doing, organizing his things. "What?"

"Um, my dad's taking me out today, since he has a guaranteed day off. But, you know, he just wants to be with me. So it's not like I'm abandoning you, it's just…"

Zero nodded. "I get it. That's fine with me."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, he's your dad, of course he wants time alone with you."

He smiled. "Okay, just making sure. The place we're going has a professional oracle, so if I can manage to talk to him or her alone, I might ask about splitting our souls and going home."

"Great, that'll help a bunch. Have fun."

"Thanks." He left.

Why had he thought that important to ask? He was his own person. Of course, being children seemed to change everything. Zero was secretly jealous of X having Rock, but kept the secret well. But right now, he was worried about something else. Iris hadn't been in school yesterday or Thursday. Of course, neither had Rainbow Swan, Sugar, and Crys. It was odd with half the class gone.

His stuff was now neat, so he went downstairs. "Roll, may I use the phone?"

"Who do you want to call?"

"Iris wasn't in school yesterday. I just want to check on her."

"All right. But don't take long."

With permission, he went into the den and looked up her number in his class book. Her mother answered the phone, her image appearing above the casting unit. "This is Greensward Grocery... oh, hello Zero."

He nodded. "Hello Mrs. Greensward. I was just wondering why Iris wasn't in school yesterday. Is she okay?"

"She's gotten ill, poor dear. And most of her friends too, so they can't visit or call each other. All stuck in bed."

"Oh. Well, tell her I hope she feels better soon."

"You can call her if you like, if Roll can get you a virus screen."

"Virus screen?"

Daisy nodded. "An extra bit of protection, but her unit won't let anyone call her without it."

"I'll see about it. Okay, thanks."

"If you like, call back in about fifteen minutes. Here's her specific number." The Greensward's phone number appeared with four extra digits. "That way you'll get straight to her room."

"I'll do that. Good bye."

"Have a good day."

Zero left the den and went back to Roll's office. "Hey Roll?"

She looked up from her bookkeeping. "Hmm, did you get through?"

"Kinda. I got Mrs. Greensward and she said that Iris is sick. And a bunch of her friends are sick too."

"Poor dear; you'd better be careful with any electronics at school for now. Once those viruses get started, they can take a while to fully erase."

"Daisy said I could call Iris if I wanted, if I had a virus screen. Do you have one I could borrow so I could talk to her? She's stuck in bed and must be very bored."

Roll smiled. "Oh, we've got plenty of screens around here, in nearly every grade they make. I have to have a set amount as an inn, and then high grade shields for the labs downstairs. They count as a pandemic center, so I own some of the highest grade screens in the world, just in case they're needed."

"I guess you would need a lot here."

She got up. "Well you probably don't need something that powerful. I'll let you borrow one of the inn screens to use. Do you have her personal number?"

"Yeah, Daisy gave it to me."

"Then you might want to use the unit in the second floor den, since that's our private home space."

"Okay, thank you."

"Sure." She opened a cabinet and pulled out a headband device. "Here we go. Let me set this on you."

Zero held still as she attached the screen to his outlet ports. "That makes my head feel funny. Like all staticy."

"Yeah, that's why this level of virus protection isn't installed on anyone. Until they figure out how to use it without making us groggy, it'll just be a temp blocker in a known infectious situation."

"I don't feel groggy, just a bit cloudy."

"I just put it on you. Now you've got an hour until it needs to come off you, so that's how long you have to talk to Iris, understand?"

"An hour… okay."

With that, he went upstairs to call Iris. It took some time ringing, but eventually Iris' voice came through. "Hello? Who is this?"

"Hi Iris, it's Zero."

It made her happy. "Hi Zero! It's good to hear from someone, at least."

"Well, a lot of kids got sick. There were only four of us in class yesterday."

"Oh my. Do you know if Sugar's sick?"

"She's been gone too, so she probably is."

"I see. She was supposed to call me yesterday, but if she was sick too…"

"I got your number from your mom; I was just calling to make sure you were okay."

"I'm sick, so I'm not okay. But the doctor said I shouldn't be sick long. I might be back Monday."

"That's good."

"I was just lonely and bored, with no one to talk to."

"What about Sandy and your mom?"

"Well mom has to work a lot, running the store. And Sandy's been away with his Scout troop today. Yesterday and Thursday, I was asleep most of the day, so I haven't seen him much."

"At least if you're asleep, you don't feel so sick."

"I guess. I was hurting really bad. You know like when you stub your toes? I felt like that all over all the time."

"That sounds bad."

"It was. And the medicine program they put me on made me so sleepy. I just feel tired and prickly today, so I guess it wasn't a really bad virus."

"It's still a virus."

"You tell that to Sandy and he'll tell you about when he was four and got really really sick and went to the hospital for a month."

"Really sick?"

"Yeah, he got Pandema-4."

"What's Pandema-4?"

"You never heard of it?"

"No."

"Well, there's ten versions of the Pandema virus. Or twelve? I don't remember now, but it's a very nasty virus. Pandema-9 killed everyone who caught it, so every time a bunch of reploids get the sign of Pandema, everyone freaks out."

"I'd imagine, if the ninth one killed so many."

"Lots of reploids have died because of the ninth one. The others can kill too, but not everybody. Sandy told me that when he got Pandema-4, he had a very high fever that lasted two days, and every time he tried to sit up, he blacked out. And of course he got the trademark sign of Pandema."

"What's that?"

"One of the first sign of any Pandema infection is when all of the sick reploid's joints weaken at once, so he collapsed like a puppet. Sandy couldn't move for three hours, and then, like I said, every time he sat up, he blacked out. But the blacking out is unique to the fourth."

"That sounds terrible." And he might not want to tell X about it. No need to give him another thing to be scared of.

"I'm glad I don't have that virus. This one is called something like, um… I don't remember how to say it. It has a complicated sciencey name."

"At least you know when it will be gone."

"That's true. So what are you doing today?"

"Well normally on Saturdays, me and X help Roll with the inn. But X went out shopping with his dad, and there's so many guests right now that Roll would rather me be out of the way."

"I know how that is. My mom will only let me in the store if it's a quiet day."

"Yeah. There's a party coming soon, and Roll tells me I can't be anywhere near there. It's not a party for kids, apparently."

Iris giggled. "That just means the adults will be doing boring stuff, like wearing very fancy clothes, talking about boring stuff, and tasting the most disgusting cheeses you can imagine."

"Why would they want to do that?"

"I don't know, but my mom does that at these wine-tasting parties. I snuck in one some time ago and the cheese I snuck off the table smelled like sweaty socks."

"Yuck!"

"I know! I put it right back and left before anyone noticed me."

"I like cheese, but that just sounds gross."

"Adults do weird things sometimes. That was at your house, actually."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Roll baby-sits me, Sandy, and Ash sometimes, but Sandy's been babysitting me lately, if he doesn't have Scout stuff going on. He says he's now ten, so that makes him responsible enough to baby-sit me. But I do miss Roll being my sitter, because she let us help her bake cookies."

"I do that sometimes now."

"Miss Roll makes very good cookies, especially her gingersnaps. I love those. Yeah, that's why mom doesn't mind us coming over to visit you two when we like, cause she knows Roll and trusts her."

"Roll is very nice. I like her."

They talked until Iris got too tired from the virus and Zero became groggy from the screen. It made an otherwise quiet and boring day good.

* * *

Gold Leaf Shopping Mall

It was nearing Christmas, so Rock took a day off work to take X shopping. The Gold Leaf Mall was somewhat distant from their house, but it would have a wide selection of gifts to look through. Inside a game and hobby store, X said, "I want to get Zero a Battlefields starter deck."

"The trading card game, huh? It must still be popular."

He nodded. "Yeah, most of the boys and some girls at the school play it. It looks neat and he can handle most of the math it needs. They've got a mix of old legendary heroes and villains with more recent ones. Like you even."

"I know. Did you want a starter pack too?"

"Well yeah," he laughed nervously, "but I'll get one for Zero as his gift. There they are." He started looking over the tins that held the starter cards. The card company that made them promised that while the starter decks would be somewhat randomized, they were also fairly built and varied. That way, the deck would be playable and newcomers to the game would have a good start. Although in order to be really good, the player would definitely want some booster packs…

Rock checked over a few. "Looks like you've got quite a variety to choose from. Here's a fire themed deck."

X winced. "Um, no, I don't think he'd like that. Oh, there's this one." he pulled out a green tin that had an ornate longsword on the cover. "'Hilt and Blade; the Swordsmen Starter Kit.' That's one Zero would be interested in."

"You're right there. You probably heard, but he was upset when he found out your school's fencing club wouldn't let him join until he turns four."

Smiling at the thought, he replied, "Yeah, but he also knows that the Dust Bunny King is only teaching him defensive techniques until he turns five. I told him not to wish that he'd grow up faster, but he can be impatient. I'll get this one for him."

"All right then." Rock was quiet for a moment, then said, "And on waiting to turn five… that's when a reploid child's magic Ring usually settles. It can be shifted before they are turned into an adult, but it's harder to do after five."

As they had to wait in a line to buy the card kit, X replied, "That's usually tested around the child's fourth birthday, right? I turn four in February."

"I think we ought to test you now. There's a place in this mall where we can get that done; it's a good shop and I trust them."

He felt a little nervous. "Really? Why now? I know it's close, but…"

Rock patted his shoulder. "I've noticed in our training sessions that whenever you cast White Ring magic, your eyes briefly have a glow to them. And Signas told me that it was quite distinct for several minutes after you cast Kyrie at the museum. I have a feeling that your magic is going to settle a year early, most likely into the White ring. Once we have this confirmed, we can discuss if you want to attempt to shift your ring."

Touching his cheeks, X thought aloud, "And faintly glowing eyes are a sign of the White ring. But why would I settle into one ring so early? Is it because I use magic so much?"

"That could be one explanation. But Roll thinks that your mental development is far ahead of your physical development. That would be why you're so ahead in school, and also why you're far more mature than Zero. But there could be other reasons for that."

X took Rock's hand, feeling nervous. The child was in control, as he had asked to be for today. But whenever conversations turned personal like this, he felt reluctant to talk. "They kind of made me that way," he admitted. Then a welcome distraction came. "Oh, we can go to the counter now."

After buying Zero's gift, they went to a shop called 'Rustic Runes'. There were hundreds of strange smells in this place, from the books, the potion ingredients, the incense, the candles… the main scent was a lit set of papyrus candles, which gave a mysterious feel to the place. This store was for serious magicians, as it had no fancy baubles, no flashy articles, just the items that an active magic user needed. As it seemed, the shopkeeper knew his father well. "Good morning, Rock," the man called out warmly. "Who's this with you?"

"Good morning," he replied. "This is my son X. X, this is Vern Edwin, the store's owner."

"Good morning, sir," X said, accepting a handshake from the owner.

"And back at you," Vern said. "So this is about testing him?"

Rock nodded. "Yes, like we discussed. Are you ready for us?"

"Sure thing, follow me into the back. Anita, you're in charge while I'm away." He left the sales counter to a woman about his age and led them past a large door in back.

On the floor of this room, there was a large circle diagram with many runes. There were also special warding runes on the walls and ceiling, so that if any spell went wild, it would be safely contained. Vern had him stand in the center part of the diagram, then took a crystal on a string and held it close to X's face. Before long, it began swinging in a wide circle.

"You do have a strong talent for it," Vern murmured. "Much more so than most reploid kids I see."

"When you consider me and his mother, it's not a big surprise," Rock said.

"True. I hear you already know a variety of spells."

He nodded. "Yes, mostly healing and protective spells. I focused on learning support magic for a while, but I do know some attack magic."

"Great. Well then you may already know some of the test spells, but I still need to give you the formulas." He went to put away the crystal, then brought back over a small booklet of spell calculations. "I don't want you to deviate from the formulas listed here; they're needed so we can get an accurate measure of your abilities. The first set of spells all focus on seven Arts, while the second set focuses on the seven Rings. Make an attempt to cast each one in turn. If you start to feel tired, we'll stop for a few minutes. That's perfectly normal for this test."

"All right." But whatever was normal, X was able to cast the fourteen spells readily. They were simple magic equations, fully figured out with no mystery runes to figure out. He did feel a little tried after that, but so long as he didn't cast any more magic for the day, he'd be okay.

Vern invited him to come see the computer readout of his abilities. It was a circle divided into seven wedges. Inside, there were two line diagrams. The one for Arts was fairly even, but had a spike for a few of them. The one for Rings was even more clear cut, with a massive spike for White.

Rock nodded slightly. "I was right; you are settling early, into the White ring."

"You've even got a clear preference for the Thunder Art, which would match your father's talent as Black Thunder," Vern noted. "Or you could slide into White Life; the Arts preference usually comes later than the Ring."

"I guess I do find it easier to use a Thunder or Life rune if it's a variable factor," X said. "But am I set yet?"

"Not entirely," the human said, pointing to a few smaller spikes in the Ring graph. "See this line here? When all the other rings drop below this point, you can't move into that field of magic. So that locks you out of Nature, Black, and Warlock. But you can still move into Elf, Sorcery, and Shadow."

"I can talk to elves," X said. "But I learned that from a dragon. I know how a sorcerer reconfigures runes, but I don't have that down to an instinct like they do. And I have visions from time to time."

"Visions can be either from the White or the Shadow ring," Vern said. "That may be why Shadow is your second highest spike. You could shift into that in about three to four months, I would guess. Elf is pretty low, so if you want into that, you almost need to bond with an elf immediately and cast nothing but that ring for the next year. And if you're as smart as I've heard, the sorcerers would love to have you in their numbers; just find one that would take you on as an apprentice. Otherwise, if you keep practicing magic as you are now, you'll become a White adept within the next month or two."

"Star Guise is a sorcerer, right?" X asked. "But he may not be up to taking an apprentice."

"I know some others, but you could ask Star if he feels up to it," Rock said.

Vern tapped the desk, thinking. Then he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. "I think, before you decide anything, you ought to speak to the fortune teller who works in this mall."

"A fortune teller?" Rock asked.

"Lulani does a lot of business with me. He's technically a Shadow Light soothsayer. However, he is one of the few wizards who practices White magic on a regular basis. He would be best qualified to speak with you on either Ring of magic, and he would be a good instructor on both for when you do decide. But he doesn't reveal his use of White magic much, so I need to explain the situation to him. I'm sure he'll understand." After writing the note, Vern gave them directions to Lulani's shop.

They went to eat first, hamburgers and french fries. Over lunch, they talked about what options he had. Elf magic was primarily support skills, which made one a valuable asset to a team of any kind. While his healing abilities would remain good, his visions would decrease and his attack magic power would sharply decrease. Sorcery magic was adaptable, not bad at any kind of magic, but not great at any kind either. What they excelled in was creating new spells and deciphering complex rune designs, so it was good if he wanted to be a researcher.

Then there was Shadow magic. Shadow magic manipulated senses, which could be used both to increase and decrease vision, hearing, scent, and so on. While it wasn't necessarily bad magic, the deceptive quality of it made it worthwhile to thieves and tyrants as much as it did to oracles and ninjas. Plus, it had been Adanya's ring, so that made it less attractive to X.

Which left White magic, which was very good at healing, visions, and defensive spells. Attack magics would take him longer to cast and learn, but the decrease of power wouldn't be as bad as Elf or Shadow magic. Plus, support magic aside from healing and defense would be harder. Then there was the fact that it was Dr. Wily's Ring as well as the most difficult to master in the eyes of most scholars.

It was understandable that he got cut out of Nature magic. Most people fell into Nature magic if they didn't start studying magic as a whole early on. That didn't mean it was bad: it gave rise to potion masters and the unique 'monster magic' spells, like the Thousand Needle attack that Zero knew. Black magic was highly focused on the Arts, in particular the five 'physical' elements of Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Thunder. Black wizards had the highest attack power among all magic users, although other skills like healing, support other than attack, and potions became difficult for them. Lastly, Warlock magic was quite adaptable, aside from an utter inability to use healing magic and stronger defense spells. They made up for that by being able to calculate two spells at once, which made them nearly as formidable as Blacks in a battle.

After cleaning up from lunch, they went to the far end of the mall to reach Lulani's shop. It was smaller than most stores here, with its windows closed off with heavy blue curtains. Inside, there were a few items for purchase in the front part, with a teenaged girl working at the counter. "Excuse me," Rock said, "but we were told to meet with Lulani by Vern over in the Rustic Runes store."

"I'm sorry, he's in doing a reading right now," she aid. "He should be done shortly, though."

To pass the time, they found a catalog with a variety of Tarot decks available for order. "Mine's a common one, I think," Rock said, pulling them out of his coat pocket. "Especially since they were just given to me."

"Does it matter?" X asked, looking at some rather expensive decks. "It looks like it's different art styles mostly."

"I'm not sure. It's all based on symbolism, and I guess different decks might have different symbols."

The black curtains in back shifted aside to release three teen girls and the fortune teller. Lulani turned out to be a reploid, built mostly like a human, but with a unicorn's horn in the middle of his forehead and white lion-like tail at his tailbone. "I don't believe anyone was scheduled for this time," he said.

"No, but these two gentlemen were sent here by Vern," the clerk said, pointing them out.

"Ah, hello then. I'm Lulani Gail, a pleasure to meet you." He shook hands with Rock.

"You too. I'm Rock Light, and this is my son X. Here, he sent along a note." He passed that over.

The unicorn reploid took a moment to read it over, growing serious as he saw what it said. "I see. Why don't you come in back? This could take some time."

"Right, thank you."

When the curtain closed behind them, Lulani looked to Rock. "I'm sure you know the dangers of showing interest in White magic."

Rock nodded. "Of course. I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make, though. Him being my child is enough to make him a target to Master Wily."

"True. And he has been away from the world. Please, sit down at the table. I'm not sure how long we'll take." He indicated a large black slab of marble that acted as a low table. Benches were on all four sides of it. Painted on the surface, there were runes and various diagrams.

"What is this?" X asked, curious about the table. It had a strong magic aura to it, so it had to be some tool.

Lulani plucked a small round stone out of a nearby bowl. "This is how I tell fortunes, a Tiezical aura forecast. It can be highly accurate, but it takes years of training to master. Vern says you have visions as well, putting you in line for White or Shadow magic."

He nodded. "Yeah. From the books I've read, I have two areas I'm naturally good at. One is symbolic visionary signs. One time, I saw a demon holding a silver pinwheel and it turned out to be a warning of entering danger by way of a child's distraction. The other is seeing truth and knowing lies. I can look at a person and know their name, and a few basic facts about them. If someone lies to me, I know it, and if they avoid saying something, sometimes I can figure out what they left unsaid."

"Hmm." He pulled out a few stones and passed them over. "Seeing symbols is a skill of the Shadow Ring; as you can see, my fortune telling relies on symbols. The knowledge of truth is a White skill. You may have encountered this, or perhaps it's not been long enough, but knowing truth is a dangerous thing."

"Isn't it best to acknowledge or tell the truth?" Rock asked.

"That would be ideal," Lulani agreed. "However, nearly everyone lies, to themselves or to others. Sometimes the truth is too painful; sometimes the secret is too deep. Being able to know a lie or know a truth as it is said does not help with your social skills, as the truth seer will either be reluctant to trust anyone or will be avoided by others who want to keep their secrets. And that is something to consider about the White ring as a whole. Some White skills are highly honored, like the healing spells. But many White skills can easily make you ostracized by others: speaking with the dead, knowing when death is near, power over undead creatures, and the knowledge of truth. White wizards can be valuable to the communities they serve, but they are more likely to become hermits or otherwise distant from society due to their powers."

"People find it hard to trust Shadow magic too," X said.

"Yes, since its powers often lie in the opposite direction, in deception. If you want to be more normal, you'd try to go into Sorcery or Elf magic. But you really should go with what you feel most comfortable with." The oracle tapped his alicorn, then added, "There are two of you, but I'm getting a sense of a third with you."

"A third?" Rock was puzzled at that, while child X felt nervous.

Lulani pulled out some other stones and placed them on the stone tablet, apparently by dropping them at random over the diagrams. But the layout seemed to mean something. "It's a highly positive spirit, don't worry. A guardian of sorts, one that helped to bring you both together. He's fine, but he'll only be around until April. However, there is a major deadline of the twenty-first of March. If something isn't done by then, there will be a great disaster." He frowned. "But my vision is being purposely clouded by another power, so I can't tell of anything else. Just remember that date."

"The vernal equinox, huh?" X said, then thought, that was the traditional first day of spring.

"Yes, then. But that's not what you came here for."

They continued discussing magic for half an hour, then thanked Lulani for his time and left.

* * *

Dec 15

Diamond Hotel lobby

After school, X and Zero went with Ash and Sandy to Ash's building. They sat in the hotel lobby as the older boys taught them how to play Battlecards. "See, this number is your attack rating," Sandy said, using a Goblin card as a demonstration. "And this number is your defense rating. This is your mana cost, how many spheres it takes to summon the card. Goblin has just a regular attack that you can use any turn, but see this one," he brought out a Goblin Mage, "has a mana attack, so its mana cost is right after the spell name."

"Okay," Zero said. "So the attack rating is just for the regular attack?"

"Yeah, but see, Fire Ball attacks for mana cost plus attack rating. So you add them together for the final attack damage."

"And it does fire damage," Ash pointed out. "If you're playing Elementals, anyhow. If you are, then fire damages plant creatures for double damage. So Fire Ball against this Cactaur would be Goblin Mage's attack, 5, plus mana cost, 5, so ten, then doubled to 20 attack damage."

"Then you subtract Cactuar's defense score of 10, so it takes 10 total damage."

"I think I get it."

X didn't listen hard, because he was able to figure it out based on the instructions he found online. But Zero needed the extra help, so they were here. Plus, X hadn't played before, so they were going to practice a few rounds with some extra decks the older boys had.

But the game got interrupted by the door opening. The reploid man was eight feet tall and was wearing serious battle armor. As he was so tall, he had to duck into the door and turn himself a bit sideways. He reminded adult X of the General he had known, except silver-white in color. He wondered.

Child X was intimidated by the giant reploid. "Whoa, he's big."

The other three looked around. Ash got so excited that he jumped over the back of the lobby couch and ran. "Dad, you're back early!"

He grinned and picked up his son, who was only half his size. "Hey there, great to see you. I was hoping to surprise you and Dahlia."

"I'm glad you're back." Ash hugged him.

Sandy got up and walked over, so the other two followed. "Hi Uncle Oregon!"

"Hello Sandy. You keeping your girls safe?"

"Of course, sir."

"Good man." He put Ash back down. "So what are you two up to?"

"These are some new friends," Ash said. "This is X, Rock's son, and this is Zero. We were teaching them how to play Battlecards. And this is my dad, Oregon. He's a Commander of the Snow Patrol."

"Hello sir," Zero said, shaking his hand. Although since he was only three foot high, Oregon could have easily picked him up in that hand.

"Hello." X was taller at three feet and a half, but he was still intimidated by this commander.

"Hello to both of you. It's always good to meet new friends." He tapped X's head. "Hmm, but you didn't have to tell me he was Rock's son. Looks almost exactly like him."

"We can still surprise mom!"

"Of course, though I don't want to interrupt any games."

"That's okay," Zero said. "We understand."

"Yeah, you should always stick with your family," X added.

"Certainly. Although Sandy, you might want to walk your younger friends home. Someone's spotted a Dark Hunter in the city limits and there might be trouble."

"The Hunters?"

Ash tugged at his father's hand. "Actually, dad, if that's the case, maybe we ought to walk them home. The Hunters have tried kidnapping them before."

"They want to take us back to Ikari Tower," Zero said.

Oregon nodded. "We can't let that happen. All right then, let's get you safely home."

About halfway there, Rock met them. He was wearing his wizard robes. "Oh good, there you are. I was coming after you; Enker's been sighted in the city, so we need you back home."

"We're okay," X said. "Oregon came with us."

"Good afternoon, Rock." They shook hands. "It's been a while."

"No kidding Oregon. Good to see you again. How's things going?"

"Hectic. We had to alter seventeen trading routes this month alone, because the Ice Dragon is changing her flight routes again."

They talked all the way back, about Snow Patrol business or the Ice Dragon. X felt his danger sense rise once. He spotted Enker on top of a building, watching them. He wouldn't strike now, not with Rock and Oregon guarding the two of them. But he and the other Hunters were always watching.


	21. Family Bonds

Dec 12

Roger Cain walked through the Annapolis mall, looking for Christmas presents. But his mind wasn't fully on the search for good gifts. He kept thinking of his younger brother Sigma. Something was wrong, but he didn't know what. He tried to tell his father, but David thought everything was okay. This was one of those times Roger was frustrated with him. He was always busy with the City Guard and never seemed to have time for his sons.

It was unusual to have mixed families, but Roger wasn't the only human in school that had a reploid sibling. Couples like David and Zeta were rare but existed. Having children between such a pair usually meant adoption. However, the Cains were rich enough to afford the genetic-programming procedure that allowed them to actually be full parents to their two children. Roger knew it didn't matter how it happened; Sigma was his brother. Something was wrong with Sigma and Roger wanted to find out what. But if their parents believed everything was okay, how could he know?

Just as he was thinking that, he passed by the oracle shop. He wondered. Oracles had a strange place in society. Most people would say out loud that prophecy was self-fulfilling and too vague to rely on. But many also believed such people saw truth for what it was. Were oracles con men or true seers? It was a risk.

Lulani had a solid history in Annapolis. His reputation was a good one. His predictions were on the vague side, like all oracles, and he was better known for his uncanny matchmaking. Maybe he couldn't say exactly what was wrong, but maybe he could point out something Roger was missing.

Roger stepped into the lobby at the same time as Lulani. "You're looking for me," he said simply.

"Of course," Roger said. "I need some help."

"Come in. Your father's running late today, so you have plenty of time."

"Um, sure." But when wasn't David running late?

The next room was simple in décor. White curtains covered the walls. Two low benches flanked a black piece of glass on the floor. Many stones were scattered on the glass. Etched on the glass and the stones were the forty-nine Ring-Art blends of magic, plus other significant signs. Lulani sat on one bench, so Roger took the other.

The unicorn reploid pulled the stones off his glass reading table. "So tell me what's bothering you." He put the stones in a bowl and mixed them.

"I think something's wrong with my reploid brother."

"Younger or older?"

"Younger."

Lulani pulled out some stones and began placing them. "Go on. What is wrong?"

"I'm not sure, but he seems to have changed. He was a regular kid, you know, curious, liked to go outside despite the cold, played with his friends a lot, loved school. But over the summer, he changed; now he hates being outside, he plays alone most of the time, he's given up some of his friends for more dubious kids… but most of all, he doesn't recognize us as family anymore. He says we're not the same. He never had a problem with our family arrangement before."

Lulani looked over the stones he had down. "Hmmm…"

Roger thought of other things but wasn't sure how they connected. "He's also obsessed with his holo-battle set. I mean, we both always liked it, but he's on it so much lately. It seems odd. And he gets these terrible headaches too, which never happened until he changed."

"Was it a gradual change or sudden?"

Roger tried to recall it. "I think… both, really. He got struck by that weird falling star in June. He changed some that day, but dad fixed him. Then he kept changing over the summer. Mom and Dad think nothing's wrong, but I think there is."

"Falling star," Lulani mumbled. He kept studying his arrangement. "Odd."

"What?"

"Your brother's change does have to do with the star. All of the signs are from the star. But this pattern is new to me. I'm not sure how to interpret this."

"Really?" Roger looked at the tablet, but it made no sense to him. "What's odd about it?"

"Just the relations. It's odd enough though. Hold on a minute. I can get you the means to find the truth."

"Okay…"

Lulani left the room for a back room, where he spent several minutes doing something. When he came back, he handed a small plastic box to Roger. It had a strange powder in a tea bag. "Here you go. But you must follow my instructions precisely. This normally isn't used for amateurs, but based on the signs I can see, it will be best for you to seek the truth this way."

"Is this dangerous?"

"Only if you use it too often. Listen carefully. Take a pot of very hot water, three ice cubes, and a sturdy mug. Place the bag in the mug, pour the water over it. Let it steep for exactly one minute. Pull the bag out, throw it away, preferably in an enclosed incinerator, then let the mixture sit for five minutes. Place all three ice cubes in, wait until they all melt. Then drink the brew. Do this right before you go to bed and place a picture of your brother under your pillow, preferably from before he changed, but not too old. You should receive a truth dream concerning your brother's problem. It should be clear, but if it isn't, write it down immediately upon awakening and come back for an interpretation. You understand?"

"…yes."

"Let me write that down, just in case. Be careful, and good luck."

* * *

As Lulani said, David came home late. Roger didn't mention his meeting with the oracle. His father was very much a no nonsense man. He would listen politely to an oracle, then proceed with what he had planned anyhow. The one time where he had used an oracle's advice, he had nothing else to go on in an emergency situation. And even then, David said it was mostly luck that it turned out the way it did.

Finding a picture of Sigma in the right time frame was easy. Zeta loved to take pictures. Within a few minutes, Roger had found several appropriate photos. He picked one of Sigma alone, climbing their apple tree to gather fresh fruit for pies. Roger put that picture under his pillow, then carefully read Lulani's brewing instructions again. His timing was precise.

The tea smelt like curry, but tasted woody. Roger hated the first drink and felt like he never wanted to taste this stuff again. He finished off the brew, although his opinion didn't change. He went to sleep and had a vivid dream.

He was standing by the apple tree, which was heavy with fruit. The indoor bees buzzed around the plum tree. Just like their garden had been then. But Sigma wasn't in the tree. Roger looked around and spotted something odd through the glass. A floating walkway going straight off the rooftop.

He walked down the walkway; it was solid as if it were on the ground. At the end of the walkway was a stone arch. Roger touched it.

He was transported to a maze of paths and arches. He heard crying. Roger followed that sound down a lone path that shot away from the rest. At the end of the lone path was a small plain square surrounded by bars wrapped with barbed wire. Sigma sat inside, crying into his knees.

Roger looked at the door, but it was secure. "Sigma?"

"Roger?" Sigma came to the door. "Roger, how did you get into my mind?"

"I'm dreaming. I went to the mall oracle and he let me do this. What's wrong? Why are you in a cell… in your own mind?"

"It's not my fault. That star was an evil being that came from another world."

"An evil alien being?"

Sigma nodded. "Yeah… he, um… he hates you. He wants to kill you."

"So that's why some of your looks unsettle me."

"It's not me," he insisted. "It's the other guy… the adult version of me."

"You?"

"Yes. He hates all humans, but especially you and dad. He also thinks most reploids are ignorant, although he really hates those Ikari kids. He hates them more than humans, really."

"I see."

"Did you come to free me?"

"I came to find out what was wrong with you. I'm not sure how to get you out."

"Oh."

Roger reached through the bars and patted his brother's head. "But don't worry. I'll find a way to get him out and get you free. I promise."

Sigma smiled. "Thanks big brother."

"Anytime, little brother."

"What are you doing here?" The alien Sigma's voice was deep and used to being followed.

Roger stood up to him. "I'm getting my brother out of here and sending you back to hell."

"You can't do that, human. You have no control over my mind."

"I'll find some way." He willed himself to wake up.

The alien Sigma frowned, then pointed to Roger. "You're in my mind right now. You're not getting out without punishment."

* * *

Sigma woke up. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. That was an odd dream. But it seemed so real. Just in case, Sigma got out of bed and left his room. Roger's room was next door and he was able to walk in easily.

Roger's body was in a seizure. So it had been real. Sigma smiled. "You won't tell anyone," he said quietly.

The light turned on. "What's going on in here?" Zeta asked sleepily.

Sigma froze for a second. Then he realized he'd better pretend to be the good little brother. "Roger's in trouble!" he said panicky. He tried to mimic crying.

She realized the problem and blanched. "Good heavens… David! Call the hospital! Roger…"

* * *

Dec 13

It was early in the morning. Sigma was sleeping on a set of waiting room chairs. He'd done his best at being a worried brother, but the act wore him out. And he hadn't gotten to sleep long last night. And he didn't really care; falling asleep was the best thing for him.

David and Zeta weren't able to sleep. They were with Roger, who was unresponsive, seemingly asleep. The doctors were running tests, but tests took time and the cause of Roger's seizure was elusive. No one knew what would happen to him.

Then someone came in. Not the doctors. Lulani, the oracle who worked in the mall, was the one. He came straight in and looked at Roger's face.

"Excuse me, Lulani," David said, "what are you doing here?"

"I know what's wrong with your sons," he replied, still looking at Roger's face.

"Sigma's okay, but Roger…" Zeta started.

"Where is Sigma?"

"In the waiting room, sleeping."

"Sigma has been possessed by an evil self-aware virus, a sort of spirit we have never seen before. Alive, anyhow. Roger noticed and worried about his change of behaviors, so he spoke with me. I was unable to interpret the reading, so I sent him on a dream quest. Therefore, I am partly to blame for this."

David was normally polite to Lulani, but no more. Still, now he said he knew about Roger and Sigma when no one else did. "Sigma's possessed?"

"Yes. Roger went into Sigma's dreams. The evil spirit must have noticed him and attacked before Roger could come out. He was inexperienced in dream world mechanics. I felt it was fine before, but in the middle of the night, I realized what happened, both to Sigma and last night. I apologize; I had no intention of hurting your human son, only helping your reploid son."

"Can we bring Roger back?"

"I can, and I will. But the evil spirit still lies within Sigma." Lulani touched his alicorn. "I am unable to perform such exorcisms. However, if you bring him to the Cathedral, you will see the truth. The priests there should be able to clear Sigma. But in order to keep the evil one in the dark, you should not inform Sigma that Roger is alive."

* * *

December 14  
Cain residence

Sigma studied the security systems of Monsteropolis. It was a tight system, apparently one of the best in the world. Which was fairly good, he guessed, based on their technology level. He was still trying to understand how magic figured into it. Many of these systems referred to runes and spells in connection to shields and surveillance. But he had a hand on the inside now. That would make all the difference in five or eight years.

The best plans took years to formulate, Sigma knew. However, he also knew that the best laid plans could be ruined in a matter of minutes through miscalculation or wild-card factors. Magic was a definite wild card while he didn't know it fully. He thought often of bullying X and Zero into getting the three of them back home, or conning Domino into it. He'd much rather be at home where he knew how everything worked.

On the other hand, he had in this world a brilliant opportunity that he thought he would never have again. This world had no idea who he was. They had viruses, which he'd learned through the whole Gate family getting ill with some Hexacon virus. But those were unthinking parasites. This world had never had a self-aware virus that could be transmitted easily (under the right circumstances) and which altered a reploid's personality. In his original world, he opened the eyes of the blind slaves and made them see the humans for the cruel masters they were.

And this world had no idea that a virus like himself could exist. Well, X and Zero knew, but they were kids. The babies of the school, as Sigma's classmates liked to call the first years. If he could attack before they would be taken seriously, he might have a shot at fulfilling his dreams.

That is, if he could get rid of the original soul of this body. Sigma could hear him crying sometimes, because Roger was dead. It was that pampered idiot that was keeping him from spreading. Maybe it had to do with magic, but Sigma could not remove the brat from his body without shutting the body completely down. He kept telling the brat that he was letting him live; truth was, Sigma didn't know how to get rid of him. And while that brat remained, he was trapped in another way.

His com buzzed. It was Shield Sheldon, for some reason. He put the call through. "What is it Sheldon? It's late."

"You're awake too."

"I'm studying for the test," he lied. "What are you up to?"

"I'm outside your building. My babysitter thinks I'm asleep, but I'm gonna sneak over to my dad's party. Do you want to come?"

Childish pranks, Sigma thought. "What's so interesting about this party?"

"It's only the adults, so it must be something fun that they're keeping from us. They've got all sorts of weapons on display there, like the Chassina blade. And they're supposed to have a dessert table with all sorts of cakes and candies. I want to go see the weapons, but I also want to sneak off with some desserts. Sounds like fun, huh?"

Desserts weren't interesting, but the weapons could be. This child's body had no innate powers, weapons, or abilities, much to Sigma's disappointment. The Chassina blade was some legendary runic blade, like a plasma beam sword. It was powered based off of the will of the wielder. I could certainly form an impressive Chassina blade, Sigma thought. "That does sound fun. Where is this party?"

"At the Cathedral, because they've got some dark weapons that need holy restraint. But come quickly, if you are coming. I can't be gone too long."

"Okay, I'll be down in a sec." Some dark weapons as well? Anything called dark and evil, Sigma had learned over the years, was usually due to superstition or lack of understanding. One of them might be just as useful as Chassina. So Sheldon was worth something.

He greeted Sheldon eagerly when he got outside. They ran for the Cathedral, three blocks from Sigma's building. It was one of the oldest and most beautiful structures in Monsteropolis. Sigma had never been inside, but he was interested. If the outside was any indication, the inside had to be masterful and awe inspiring.

Despite having weapons on display, there was no security visible at the Cathedral. They didn't expect trouble, especially not from a pair of kids. Sigma felt a thrill at the thought. There were some advantages to being a child.

"Where do you think everything will be?" Sheldon asked. "Is there a map?"

"They've probably got the largest room open for dancing. That might be where they have the refreshment bar. I'd think they'd keep the weapons in a side room. We might want to see them first, you know, because we can just hide the sweets and run for it."

"All right." Sheldon followed Sigma inside.

This was a large party. Either that, or everyone was in the foyer chatting. Sigma and Sheldon made their way through the adults, not getting any notice. He did notice the floor shimmer, but figured it was fancy effects. However, all the doors were shut, and there was no indication of where anything would be.

Then Sigma walked into an invisible barrier. It knocked him back with the sound of a steel drum. The barrier materialized, formed like a white sheet of water. "What's that for?" he muttered.

Sheldon somehow walked through the barrier. "It's for you!" he said accusingly. "You stole my friend."

Everyone else was walking out of the barrier's circle. "You idiot, I am your friend."

"No you're not. Sigma wouldn't call me an idiot."

The barrier began to shrink inward. Sigma tried to walk out, but was knocked back again. "What the hell is this?"

"It's a holy barrier that has always been inside the Cathedral," David Cain said, appearing from the crowd. "It keeps those with unbalanced hatred from entering this holy place."

Great. Somehow they had caught on. Sigma backed up; the shield was still coming at him. He glared at David. "You'll regret this, human." Then he attempted a mass infection. He had done it many times before. Every reploid, robot, and computer should become infected and listen to his revelations. It would sap a lot of energy to bypass the brat's protection, but it would work.

Most of the time, his infections couldn't be seen. Most reploids could feel it before he opened their eyes and some fought with all their will. This time, a burst of bright red energy came from him. The red energy clashed with the holy barrier, making it stop its advance. Pink sparks flew in every direction, causing witnesses to back up.

Then Cardinal Windell appeared and empowered the barrier. His infection's red energy failed. The barrier crashed into Sigma from all sides. Before he blacked out, he felt a strange sense of fear.

* * *

December 15

It took three hours for the Cardinal and two priests to get the dark soul out of Sigma's body. They came back close to midnight; Sigma looked exhausted and covered in fine white lines. The alien had been immensely strong, but he seemed to know little about magic.

Sheldon managed to be the first to reach him. He hugged his friend. "Are you all right now?"

"I guess," Sigma said, clutching a silver ankh the Cardinal had given him. "But I..."

Zeta picked him up. "It's great to have you back."

David patted his shoulder. "Of course. We'll do everything to protect you now."

"But I couldn't help Roger," Sigma finished. "I saw him; he was trying to help me."

Zeta put him down, so Roger could snatch him from behind. "So long as you're free of that hateful spirit, I don't mind."

"Roger? I thought you were dead." He hugged his brother tightly, feeling some tears come to his eyes. It seemed incredible, but so wonderful!

"Sorry we had to do that to you," David apologized.

"Everything will be fine now," Roger said, messing Sigma's hair up.

Sheldon touched the side of his head. "I'd better go back home," he said reluctantly. "My dad's been calling me."

"Does he mind you being up so late?" Zeta asked.

"Well, I..." Sheldon paused. "It'll be okay. Sigma's better."

"No, I promised I would help you," Sigma said.

"You did?" Sheldon asked.

"Dad, we have to take him home with us," he said quietly, so only his family would hear. "There's something bad going on with his father."

"Is something wrong, Sheldon?" David asked.

"Sort of." He looked extremely shy all of a sudden, looking at the ground instead of David.

David patted the shell on his shoulder. "You can stay with us as long as you need to, right this very night. I think I know the problem; I was looking to find some way to get you out of harm's way already."

Then Sheldon looked back and smiled.

* * *

December 17  
Light residence

Zero was comfortably in bed, a minute away from being asleep. The blankets were soft and warm. A clock on his dresser ticked softly. The wind outside made occasional noises, but nothing to fear. He just had to stop thinking for a moment and he would be off dreaming.

There was a thud against the windowpane of his room. The lock undid itself with a rude click. Zero opened his eyes and saw a shadowy figure right outside his window.

He sat up, now wide awake. Were they going this far to get to him? The house security should trigger at any moment, he thought. Still, he crept across his bed to the table where he kept Dusty's hilt. A nice loud scream would wake everyone else up.

The shadowy invader lifted the window open. With only pajamas on, the draft of cold winter air hit Zero's skin like a knife. He turned on the lamp first, to make the invader pause. Then to scream to wake everyone up... the invader stepped into his room, so his face was illuminated.

Instead of screaming, Zero asked, "Forte? What are you doing here?"

"Shh," Forte replied. He shut the window. "I hope you don't mind the late visit."

"No, that's fine." Zero looked at the window. "How did you get past the security system?"

Forte chuckled softly as he took off his cloak and draped it over a chair. "I've been breaking into places for a great many years, but I'm not about to tell you how I do it. This place isn't much of a challenge to me anymore."

"Okay. Hey, do you want me to get X? He's right across the hall."

"No, just you tonight."

"Just me? Why?"

"I have my reasons." He sat on the bed next to Zero. "I wanted to visit on Christmas, but the winds speak of a strong storm system to pass through the area soon. Tonight's my safest option. Anyhow, have a look at this." He handed Zero a photograph.

The photograph had Forte and Zero in it, but it showed Zero as a young toddler. They were at the Monsteropolis zoo; he recognized a symbol on an information plaque placing them there. But they weren't looking at an animal. They were looking at a showy orange flower. The blossom dwarfed Zero's face at the time. Child Zero felt a moment of uncertainty. Could he remember such a large flower in this wintery world? "Flowers?"

"There weren't many when we visited that time, but this one enchanted us both. I've never seen one like it, before or since. A friend of mine took this one. She and I had quite a time trying to get you to look at the camera."

"I don't get it. I mean, I sort of know it, but I can't think of it. Why was I with you?"

"You are my son."

Several weeks ago, child X had tried to talk about when he confirmed that Rock was his father, but said it was much too complicated for words. Zero didn't understand that at the time. It was a simple fact. But facing the situation himself, yeah, it was complicated to describe. "You're my dad?"

Forte took his hand. "Yes."

"But when we met in Balna, we were practically strangers. Although, I did have a weird feeling that I should have known you. I didn't know why. How would I forget you?"

"It was Dr. Wily's doing, I believe." Forte looked and sounded lost with that statement.

"He's still alive?"

"I can't be sure it was him; he's been ruined if it was him. I know Ikari Domino was there. I tried to hide you at first, but Ikari knew, and I had to hand you over to him."

"Why would you do that?" He liked Forte, but if he was his father and had given him over to Ikari... Zero didn't know what to feel.

"I didn't want to." He rubbed his forehead. "I may be a reploid, but my mind is not entirely my own. Right now, I can do what I like. But within my father's presence, I must do whatever he says. I must follow whatever order he gives me. It doesn't matter if I don't want to do something; I have to if he says so. I went to extreme measures to protect you when you were first born. I changed my name, I worked as a janitor... I could hardly believe it. People fear my name, but I was working as a janitor, all while trying to keep you safe. But it didn't work."

"Oh..." Zero tried to think of something to say. "Well, I'm safe now. Everyone around here treats me like X. They won't even let us walk to and from school alone."

"Yes, that is good. Ironic too, that you are safest in the house of my enemy."

"Your enemy?"

A smirk wandered onto his face. "Yes. Rock and I have been trying to kill each other pretty much since we met. We're both mature reploids, Dr. Light is gone, I've tried to sever my ties to Wily... even so, if we met, we'd probably wind up fighting again. But if he's willing to take full responsibility of you as his ward, I'm willing to let him. Just so long as I can keep watching over you unseen."

"That's good." Although, the child recalled X with Rock and longed to be with Forte. It couldn't happen, but now he knew for certain. There was one thing, though, that needed questioning. "Hey, um, dad?"

Forte smiled on hearing that.

"I went to the museum a while ago and there was another Zero that looked like me. Why did you name me after him?"

"That doll. I didn't name you after him. I named you something completely different."

"Really?"

"I named you Adrian. Wily... or Domino, could be either... ordered me to forget you and changed your name."

"But you remember now, right?"

Forte tapped the photo. "I had my friend. She loved photography and took many pictures of you. After I was ordered to forget, she gave them all to me. I remember you because of her, but I thought I'd lost you forever. I was hiding out of shame when you came into Balna Forest. But knowing Wily's tricks, I didn't want to cause problems by telling you the truth back then."

As he seemed saddened at those thoughts, Zero tried to think of something good to tell him. "I dreamed of you a lot. That's what got me out of the Tower. Me and X were going look for you and his mom. But then his mom turned out to be bad."

"I heard about that. I wish I could call that unthinkable, but I've met far too many cruel and selfish people."

"So my name is supposed to be Adrian?"

"Whatever you feel most comfortable with. Your mother liked that name."

"My mother?"

Forte nodded slowly. "Yes, your mom. I'm not sure I want to talk of her now. It ended badly when it shouldn't have. I think of her a lot and wonder if I should try talking to her again. But... oh, it's a complicated situation. Perhaps later, but now I need to keep her secrets."

"I guess that's okay. At least I know where you are now."

Forte hugged Zero. It was a good feeling to know him. "I know. After all that heartache, I'm just thankful to have you alive. Now, I've got one more thing to give you at this time, then I must be away. I can't be caught here."

Zero watched as he went to get a white box out of his cloak. "What is it?"

"A few weeks ago, X and I discussed your temper, particularly when you bite people."

"I don't mean to," he said, feeling his ears grow warm.

"I know. Your temper is worsened by things out of your control. This will help put you back in control."

"That's great."

"But it will put you back to sleep, so we'll have to say goodbye now."

Zero put the photo in the drawer of his bedside table, then got under his blankets again. "You be careful out in the wild."

"And you be careful here in the city. This will feel a little strange, but I know how to operate it properly."

"That does feel strange," Zero said, as the device began poking at his mind.

"It will be fine." Forte brushed his fingers through Zero's hair. He used to brush my hair every night before I went to bed, child Zero thought.

He was almost asleep again when his internal security system was tripped. His security tried to shake him awake, while the device made him sleepy. "What's it doing?"

"It's fine. Trust me."

"I don't like it."

"I only want to help you, son. Trust me."

One part of him felt like screaming again. But he could trust Forte. It was okay this time. He bypassed his security to let his father's device work. For a brief moment, he wondered what sort of operation would require such a bypass outside of a hospital. Then he was finally asleep.

Forte stayed with him for another hour, long past when the device was finished. He sat quietly watching Zero, who lay eerily still. Then the clock chimed eleven o'clock. He leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. "I'm sorry it had to be done like this."


	22. Soul Winter

December 18

Light household

It was Christmas vacation, so they didn't have to get up as early. X still got up at his usual time. He ate breakfast with his dad. They talked some, but Rock had to be at work today. Since Roll wasn't to be found, X read a book on metallurgy.

At nine-thirty, Zero came downstairs, yawning. "Does it have to be morning already?" he grumbled to X.

"Sleepyhead," X teased him. "Were you up long last night?"

"I'm not up that late."

"By three hours."

"Whatever." He poured cereal and milk into a bowl. "Hey, I have something that you have to hear."

"Really? What?"

Then Roll finally showed up. "Sleeping in late today?"

"That's just what I said."

"I didn't mean to," Zero said.

"Did you have anything for us to help with?" X asked Roll.

"Not right now, but after lunch, I'll want your help."

"Okay."

Zero waited until she left, then told X, "Later, okay? It's a secret."

He finished breakfast, then they ran up to Zero's room. Zero went over to his bedside table and pulled out a picture. "You're excited," X commented.

"I am! It's really great. Here." He handed over the picture of Forte and Zero with the orange flower.

X looked it over. "Wow, that's pretty. And weird."

"Is that all?"

"That I say it's pretty? Why were you with Forte?"

"He's my father," Zero said in a loud whisper, "and you can't tell anybody."

"That's great. I like him."

"Yeah, he came to visit me last night. We talked for a long time and he seemed happy to be able to tell me."

"He's not going to be around all the time like my dad is, though."

"That's okay. I know he's always got an eye on me and he'll come help if something happens. But he did tell me that he doesn't like Rock and would fight him if they crossed paths."

"Huh. But he's going to let you stay here?"

"Well, Dr. Wily wants us back, and Forte knows the best way to keep me from his father is to let me stay here. But then, we can't tell anyone else here about it."

"I won't, I promise."

"Good." Zero scratched his head. "You know, is it that in every world, our fathers hate each other?"

They laughed. "That might just be."

"You want to play that video game with me?"

"Sure." They played until lunch.

* * *

That evening, Rock invited X to share supper in his room. It was another attempt to be close, like most fathers and sons. But it was as awkward as any other attempt. Rock tried to get X to say what exact curse was on him. They talked of magic, curses, and undoing both. But the child was reluctant to tell what was wrong. The adult X felt that the child knew and just wasn't saying it.

Then the child asked, "How did Adanya trick you? Don't you know how to avoid spells?"

"I can avoid magical traps and cursed items," Rock said. "But she used a love potion on me. Those are much harder to detect and avoid, particularly when you don't expect it."

"Do those things really work? Love potions seem suspicious to me."

"They're nothing but trouble. Every aspect has to be in perfect balance or it gets out of control. Besides, if you have to use a love potion to make someone fall in love with you, your love probably isn't authentic." There was a long pause. "Her's didn't even work as she wanted it to."

"But why did she have to be my mom?" the child asked before the adult could warn him against saying it.

Rock looked hurt. "I don't know. That time of my life... it was horrible. Everything went wrong, and the one thing that went right may not have happened as I remember."

X apologized, but the evening was already ruined. He went to bed feeling guilty about it. As a result, his third eye gave him a vivid vision instead of a dream. He saw what had happened to Rock in that horrible time of his life.

* * *

XX19

"We can't lose him again," Blues said. "Just go."

Rock deflected another energy burst. "Right. Good luck, brother."

"You too."

Blues pulled off a flashy looking Thunder Slash to cover for Rock, who raced after Dr. Wily. He made it to the portal just in time to leave the chaotic battle and enter a snowy mountain valley. Not recognizing the place right off, he looked for landmarks or satellite signals. There were no signals. But there was the gigantic tower.

It looked like a long-weathered black tree that had finally died. The lowest twisted branches were hundreds of feet above his head. The outer wall was rough, like petrified bark and it looked big enough to house a cathedral inside. There was a magic door on the outside; traces of magic indicated that it was a temporary entrance.

Rock considered his options. On one hand, he disliked going into strange places alone while chasing an enemy. The feel of this place was like madness and despair. On the other hand, Wily was more dangerous left alive. He had threatened the new reploid race with a weapon that he said would endanger the whole world. Unless, of course, the world agreed to abide by Master Wily's rules.

I am the first of my kind, Rock thought, so I must do something to keep us alive and thriving. It had been a sort of happy accident that started him on the transformation from robot master to reploid, something Thomas Light hadn't planned on. But his father developed that mistake into something new. Rock was glad that it had happened. Wily wanted to stop it.

Rock went inside Ikari Tower.

...

"Thomas is such a dreamer, to think his work can defeat me," Wily said, not even addressing Rock personally.

"You aren't getting away this time," Rock said seriously.

"I don't play with dolls. I'll just have to destroy this one."

...

A good part of Rock's skin was stinging and his left shoulder was damaged. He was still standing. Dr. Albert Wily, who'd terrorized the world for the past seventy years, was barely sitting against the wall. His blood shone like jewels on his pale skin. Both of his legs were severely burned and one of his rib bones was poking out. Rock had hated Wily for most of his reploid life, because he kept trying to kill Thomas. But this sight hardly made him feel better.

"Brave doll," Wily said. "You fight like Thomas did, before he lost his will to power."

"I am his son."

Wily laughed, although he was dying. "He would tell a myth like that... But I won't let this defeat come easily."

He took the black sphere from his staff and shattered it against the floor.

...

People were getting used to reploids, although most barely even knew robots. There were some who called reploids living blasphemies and ordered all of them terminated. Maybe that was best.

No. Rock fought the emotional attack. His father had told him that he was a free mind, a true soul, and a child of man. He was to speak with the disbelievers and prove them wrong.

They are right, a hundred disembodied voices told him. Reploids were wrong in every sense and deserved to be subjugated. Master Wily had just the thing in store. If Rock would find a Wily reploid named Zero, things would be put into perspective. His eyes would be opened.

But my mind is already open.

Go find your new destiny, the voices from the black sphere said. You know the password to give life to this better reploid. Go do it.

Rock ran out of the Tower, trying to get away from the voices. But they pursued him and continued their attacks. They were pure emotion spells, to make him feel depressed and insignificant. His father had said if he refused to believe those spells, they would fail. Maybe if he just got home.

When he left by the way he came, the snowy mountains were no longer there. Instead, he was in a dark garden of thorn bushes. The brambles were overgrown and signs of the leaves suggested the thorns were poisoned. Rock looked again for a signal or landmark, to find his place. However, he felt strange, delirious almost

You must have cheated to defeat Master Wily, the voices hounded him.

But through the voices, he heard another sound. Crying, as if from a young child.

There was something to focus on so he could ignore the voices. Using the spells Fire Beam and Fire Extinguish, he burned a path through the thorn bushes. He found a moderately clear stone path to follow to the child.

It could be a monster's trick, the voices told him. It could be a trap.

Rock ignored them and found a pile of rubble. It may have once been a fountain. There was a crying child there, sitting on the remains of a wall. It was a reploid child, around a year old, with blue armor, black hair that was almost purple, green eyes, and a ruby on his forehead. Rock bit his lip as he saw half of himself in the child with half of Adanya.  
...

XX15

Rock had been eating alone at a deli when he met Adanya. She didn't catch his eye initially. She was a regular hominoid reploid with long black hair and a ruby on her forehead. She had been wearing a purple baby-tee with a flower on front and dark blue jeans. If she hadn't asked him to help track down a vengeful boyfriend, he wouldn't have thought of her again.

"Do you always eat out alone?" Adanya said.

Rock shrugged. "Sometimes I just have to get out on my own, you know?"

"A person shouldn't always be alone, you know."

"I guess not," he said in a neutral tone. "The police have his description now. You should be fine."

"Thanks," Rock said as Adanya brought over their drinks. "You should probably get a lawyer to look over these papers."

"I've only been here three months," she said. "Do you know any good ones?"

"You've only known me a month," Rock said. He took a drink of the soda.

"But I feel I can trust you." She smiled.

For some reason, that smile became a wonderful thing. "Um, if you think so," he said. Why was he so flustered now?

...

Rock leaned on the kitchen counter. Roll sat by him. "She's a poet too. A nurse who writes poetry. She's so smart, and witty, and beautiful."

"You've known this girl for two months and you haven't told us?" Roll kidded him.

"Well, first I was a private detective for her, so it was just business. But lately..." he snapped his fingers, trying to word what he felt. "I don't know. I can't stop thinking about her now. But she's in a trial for a bad relationship she got out of before she moved here. I'm not sure what to do."

"You should try at least," Roll said, patting his shoulder. "You should follow what your heart wants. Even if you can't be together much now; in that case, you should make every moment count." She smiled warmly at the idea.

"Are you hiding a romance too?"

Roll blushed brightly and covered her face. She tried laughing. "What, no! I must be reading too many romance novels."

Rock chuckled, to ease her. "That's all you have in your bookshelves. How are you going to branch out into other genres?"

...

Thomas tried to keep control of the situation. "I just want to test you. Yes, it's good that you're in love now, but I feel something is up. You've changed so much so quickly."

"You just don't like her," Rock said angrily.

...

Her door opened. Rock smiled weakly. "Hi Adanya."

"Rock, what are you doing here? Come on in."

"Thanks."

Adanya brushed her fingers under his eyes. "Have you been crying?"

"I argued with my dad," he admitted. "Things haven't been the same at home lately. Do you mind if I stay with you for a while?"

"No, that's fine." She put her arms around him.

"I..." he forgot what he was going to say and kissed her passionately. His soul felt like it was burning.

...

"You don't have to worry," Adanya said. "We'll always be together."

Rock smiled. "Yeah. I love you so much."

...

"Adanya?" Rock looked, but the apartment was empty. "Adanya, where are you?"

All of her things were gone. He didn't even notice anything happening. She had just vanished.

...

This must be the first frost of the year, Rock thought, seeing the light silver lining on everything. Thomas was outside, checking on how the plants were holding up. "Dad?"

He smiled. "Rock! I'm glad to see... what's happened?"

He looked down at his hand. He'd finally found a note on the bathroom mirror. "She... she left. Without saying anything. I'm sorry... for leaving." He burst into tears.

Thomas hugged him. "My poor child."

XX16

Daijon was a smuggler's paradise. There were dealers here willing to buy or sell anything. There were taverns where so long as the house was paid, no one cared what went on inside. There were powerful magic wielders who would do anything for the right price. The whole town was seedy and dubious. Rock and Blues were here to check on a lead about biological weapons trading.

But the mission no longer mattered when Rock saw Adanya there.

...

"I don't think this is wise," Blues said. "But if you must, I'll come along."

"It will be fine," Rock said again. "I'll just ask those questions and leave." But as his brother could see, his emotions were already running out of his control again.

...

"Why did you leave? Were you in trouble again?"

"It was nothing," she said. "Just leave me alone."

"You said no one should be alone."

"Shut up, you twidbiddle." Her eyes looked unfocused for a moment, but returned to normal.

"Please, Adanya..." he hesitated, then spoke quietly so his brother nearby couldn't hear. "I still love you."

"It was a stupid taffy love potion. Get over it."

"But I..." he put his hand on hers. "I still love you. My soul still burns…"

She jerked it away, then twisted it for some reason.

"Adanya!"

"Go away!" She stormed down the street.

...

Blues appeared and stood in her path. Rock ran up to them. Blues looked at Adanya sternly. "Excuse me, Adanya."

"Don't you dare rida try," she warned.

"You're pregnant, aren't you? It's my brother's child." He glared at her.

She was still for a moment. Rock realized that was why her speech was peppered with nonsense words and why her motions were sometimes twitchy. "You're...?"

She shoved Blues out of the way. "You're never going to see him, I'll make certain of that." She walked a short ways, then turned back. "And don't pursue me or I'll sue your ass off for harassment!"

Rock would have run after her, but Blues put his hand on his shoulder. After a minute of silence, he said, "Let's call dad about this."  
...

XX16

Dr. Light hadn't meant for something like this to happen. But he still felt like he should have seen it coming. Feeling guilty, he said, "Let's try using the courts to get him. I'd rather not see that woman raising any child. It shouldn't take long."

...

"There's been another delay," Blues reported. "The judge that was going to hear our case had a family emergency of some sort."

"I thought this would be quick," Rock said.

"Some things you can't predict," Thomas told him.

...

"I still love her," Rock told the court. "I don't know what's changed. I would treasure any child of mine."

...

"She overdid her love potion and overdosed him, if my readings are correct," Dr. Light said. "I'm not sure what her purpose was, but I don't believe it was in his best interest."

...

"It was just some silly affair," Adanya said. "It was nothing to make such a fuss over, veb."

...

"I order you to give him an antidote you prepared yourself," the judge said.

"Why me?" Adanya said. "They're exaggerating it."

"He's still under it's influence, and that's the best solution. I will give my judgment on the case tomorrow. I have to examine this some more."

...

The antidote was bitter and slimy. Rock almost didn't finish it. When he did, he told her, "You made it disgusting on purpose, didn't you?"

She smirked. "It worked, didn't it?"

...

The question on everyone's mind was, why did the judge give custody to Adanya? She had been nasty during the whole trial, delaying it as much as she could. And then there was a phone call.

"Rock, sir? I work in the courthouse; information has come out that Adanya bribed the judge on your custody case. Since it's a civil case, you have a week to ask for an appeal. And we're rather swamped at the moment. This judge has been accused of taking bribes in criminal cases too, so everyone's in a tizzy. I just thought, since this is involves a child, you should know."

"Hang on. I'll be right over to get the papers filed."

He was starting to hate Adanya worse than he hated Albert Wily.

XX17

The second case got interrupted by another 'family emergency'. What it was, the Lights never found out. The third case got interrupted by one judge getting sick and another taking his place. Adanya claimed a mistrial, so it had to be done yet again.

Adanya grabbed Rock before the fourth trial began. "I'm sick and tired of this," she hissed. "Don't roco... don't mess with anything."

"We're not messing with anything," he said tensely. He was trying to keep his temper.

"I don't want this brat in my head any longer, so just stick with this one."

"You could give our son to me. Then you wouldn't have to see him."

She scowled at him. Either she muttered something or the child babbled again.

"Besides, what would they say to this conversation of ours?"

"We're not in the courthouse." She stopped right outside of the court's property. "This has no weight legally." Then she walked up the stairs.

How did I ever fall for her, Rock asked himself.

XX18

The fourth trial said that Rock should have full custody of the child and Adanya was to be forbidden from contacting them again. Adanya somehow proved it was a mistrial too, because the judge was not used to custody cases and this was a particularly complicated one.

"I thought you said..."

"I'm not letting you have him."

...

For the fifth trial, no one took any chances. The judge had served for over sixty years. Although now a federal judge, he had spent a lot of time in domestic courts. He agreed to take on this case if both parties agreed (and signed) that this would be the last round. They had an independent engineer look over Rock's health and psychological records while under the love potion, they had an independent psychologist examine both parents, and the judge secretly hired an oracle to sit in on the trial and watch out for lies.

...

Their child legally had no name. During this long ordeal, Rock had occupied himself with trying to find his son a name. Adanya had given no name for him.

Adanya was under questioning now. But it seemed the child was frustrated with the judicial process too. He kept interrupting his mother, forcing her to repeat many questions. She managed to stay consistent, even when Rock knew she was lying.

Eventually, they had to pull her off the stand because the child was too disruptive. Another delay, Rock thought in dismay. Then something happened.

The courtroom had some whisperers, but was mostly quiet. Adanya got up; she had to walk by Rock to get to her place. She glanced at him.

The child said, "Tu falil." It was unmistakably a plea for help.

That plea was only a prelude of what would happen the next day.

...

"Have you ever yelled at the child or mistreated him through thought?"

Adanya shook her head. "No, of course not... Yes!" For a moment, her eyes were fierce and upset. But they weren't her eyes.

...

"We've agreed that this judgment will stand. I believe Adanya Piaso is not capable of raising a child in a healthy manner. I order Piaso to have the child transferred to Rock Light and his family within thirty-six hours. She will be denied all rights to the child over his life."

...

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he knows he's loved," Roll said.

Rock smiled. He felt wonderful. "You don't mind, really?"

"Mind? I'm excited about this. Do you know what you'll name him?"

"I've been thinking, and I might..." his com unit buzzed. "Hang on."

"The child crashed during extraction," the doctor said. "He'd grown too dependent for being in her mind for so long. There's nothing we can do."  
...

XX19

Rock looked at the crying child at the fountain and knew it was his son. He knelt in front of the child, wondering how he got here. "What is it?"

His son looked at him with big wet eyes. They were grass green, exactly like Rock's own, exactly like Blues and Roll, exactly like Thomas Light's eyes. The child closed his eyes and died.

Rock's soul froze solid.

...

The thorn garden disappeared. It had only been an illusion.

Rock looked at the snowy mountains. It had only been an illusion. If he just resisted...

He couldn't. He was cursed.

Follow us to your new destiny, the voices said.

Rock followed.

...

"Someone has been here," Rock said. There were muddy tracks in the hall. Dried, starting to flake away. It must have been weeks ago.

No matter, the voices said. It was probably a careless guard.

He came to where he should have found Zero Wily, waiting in his capsule.

But the capsule was no longer there.

XX20

The wind was calling his name. Rock didn't care. He wasn't sure where he was. It was a grassy prairie and he was sitting on a large flat stone. There was nothing for miles around. Despite the popularity of cities, there were still places like this where no one really was.

He didn't know why he was there. He had just come. He felt very little, especially not desire, need, or want to be anywhere right now. He wasn't sure how long he'd been here, except that his canteen was empty. Later, he'd probably draw some water out of the air. But until it was a pressing need, nothing seemed to matter.

And it took him longer to do that. He used to be able to draw water from air under a second. Now to fill his canteen, he had to concentrate for a full minute. Magic was powered by emotions, and he felt only a few miserable emotions now.

"Rock!" the wind called again, from right behind him. Then it turned out it was not the wind, but Blues. He was smiling. "What's with the ignoring me, huh? Where've you been? Everyone's been worried."

Rock kept looking off at the horizon. "I thought it was the wind again."

Blues sat by him, looking confused. "What happened? We've heard nothing of you or Wily since I let you through that portal."

"I think he's dead."

"You're not sure?"

"He had third degree burns and was bleeding heavily. He may have died."

"Great, that menace is gone."

He said nothing in response.

"Rock? What happened to you?"

"He cursed me before he may have died."

"What curse? Dad probably knows the cure and I'll do whatever I can to help."

"Soul Winter."

"Oh." Blues gripped Rock's shoulder. He still didn't make eye contact. Didn't even think of it. "We won't let you stay like this. Let's go home."

Blues stood up, but Rock didn't move. Why bother? Rock may have felt hungry, but he wasn't sure. He didn't feel a desire to eat, or anything.

"I'm gonna hate myself for doing this." Blues activated a command spell. "Come with me, Rock."

Rock got up. There was something to do. He followed his brother silently home.

...

He found Zero Wily, strangely enough, in his own home. Blues had been the one to leave muddy tracks. Rock looked over the unborn reploid, feeling once again that there was something he had to do. But the voices weren't telling him what now.

"There's something else to him, but I can't find out what," Thomas said. "He is very dangerous, I can tell you that."

"The password is Eternal Summer," Rock said.

"What?"

"Master Wily told me the password to bring him to life is Eternal Summer. He told me to wake this one up."

Thomas thought for a moment. "Let me look into him further before you do."

...

Turning Zero Wily from a potentially dangerous foe into a useless doll was the last thing Thomas Light did. He had died of a sudden stroke. No one had seen it coming.

Rock sat by his crying siblings, but couldn't cry himself. He felt the loss as a terrible emptiness, a sickness in his soul, but also felt trapped by the curse. During the whole funeral, he stared at the floor and said nothing.

...

Later, as they stood by the grave, Blues said, "Father, I promise you, I will do everything I can to cure Rock. That will be the only thing that matters to me until he is cured."

"Are you sure about that?" Roll asked. "It's an archaic curse."

"But there must be an antidote. I'm sorry if we must leave you alone, but it has to be done."

"I understand." She sounded upset despite the words.

"I'm sorry," Blues repeated. "But we can't leave him like this. He's hardly our brother anymore." He whispered the last part. Rock heard it anyways.

"You'll only find despair and frustration if you help me," Rock said.

"I'll find your cure," Blues said. "Come on, we have many things to research."

* * *

December 19, XX54

X woke up from the vision dream. He thought over the fragments of memory he had seen and how things could have gone. The child felt the adult's soul close and knew he'd seen it too. "You were right," he said quietly. "My mother never liked me and my father has been through horrible things too."

'But he does love you.'

"What sort of curse is Soul Winter? What can be done about it?"

'I'm not sure.' He paused for a moment. 'Magic is only fantasy back in my world. But many books I've read said a unicorn can clear any curse.'

"That's true," the child said hopefully. "Do you think we can find one?"

'It would be very hard. Unicorns live in areas of wilderness, areas made dangerous by the Ice Dragon. And they're shy. They might come to you, but they might run from your father.'

"So we have to defeat the Ice Dragon and the Fire Dragon."

'You were the one to call me.'

Child X felt a moment of panic and wanted to hide. But there was nowhere to hide now.

'What is it? What did you call us for?'

"I messed up so bad. I was desperate and did a bad thing."

'What did you do?'

"No, I don't want to..." he slipped into his mind and put the adult in control. Then he wouldn't think aloud. However, X's eyes were watery with tears.

He just needs more time, the adult thought. But if Lulani was right, he only had three more months to solve whatever the child had brought him and Zero in to do. He decided to go get a glass of water and sit quietly awake until his younger self was ready to talk.

As he came out, Zero's door opened and Rock came out. "Oh, you can't sleep either?"

The child was paying attention, the adult realized. He could no longer block out what was really happening. "I had a nightmare."

Rock knelt down by him. "Do you mind telling me about it?"

"It was one of my dream visions," X said. The child realized what he meant to say and tried to refuse. But the adult went on, "I saw how you got cursed."

He tensed on hearing that, but managed to put aside his own troubled past to deal with X's current trouble. "Those are not things meant for a child's eyes."

"I can't help what I see; I just see it." The adult paused. Nervous, the child added, "It must be terrible for you to live like that."

"It is. I can't help what I can't feel. But it is strange, and wonderful now. I've been empty and miserable, until you came back. Every time I'm with you, I feel a sort of joy, I guess. It must be joy that I'm simply not allowed to feel. But it's better, peaceful almost." Rock shook his head. "Sorry, I don't have the words."

"I think I understand."

'If he could admit that, you ought to tell him of your curse's condition,' the adult thought.

The child didn't want to, but the adult put his hand in Rock's. Rock squeezed his hand and stayed by him, perhaps sensing his indecision. "I... I don't know the name of my curse."

"You don't?" He sounded disappointed.

"I know what caused it, so maybe... maybe you know."

"If I know the conditions, then I probably can identify it."

"They locked me in a room with two mirrors. One was normal. The other was evil. They reflected each other and the evil one showed me how dangerous everything is. I was locked in there for hours and hours."

"An evil mirror." It seemed he knew about evil mirrors.

"Like it showed staplers that bite your fingers off, and I felt like that had happened to me when I saw it. It was stuff like that the whole time. It made me scared of everything, everyone... even you."

"I would never hurt you."

"But you could." He tugged at his hair with his free hand. "I get scared of so many little things that the big dangers, like Adanya, get blocked from my vision. I thought she was the only safe person. But now, I don't know." He tried to back off. "Anything and anyone could hurt me."

Rock kept a hold of him. "But I wouldn't. I'll fight off anyone, monster or person, that tries to hurt you. No matter how many monsters and fears you have."

"You would?"

"I promise, from the depths of my soul."

"Thanks, I guess."

His father hugged him. "You have nothing to fear from me. You ought to try and sleep the rest of the night."

"Um, ah... can I sleep with you tonight? I'm too scared right now, to be alone."

The adult encouraged this choice, especially since the child made it on his own. But then Rock shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I'm busy right now."

"Now? But it's two in the morning."

He thought it over. Then he got up, but held onto X's hand. "Actually, you should probably come with me. Something happened to Zero."


	23. Pandema Virus

December 18, XX54  
Light residence

Zero couldn't sleep tonight. His room was stuffy and a little too warm, but he wasn't allowed to operate the environmental control panel. At first, he lay over his blankets. Then he thought of opening his window a crack. That might not work. Roll had asked this morning why his window was unlocked. She had locked them because there was a blizzard in the weather forecast for this week. At least that conversation got interrupted, so he didn't have to make up some lie.

Then he decided he might sneak outside for a while. He went downstairs; it was late enough that everyone was in bed, so he just had to walk quietly. He got out the door before he thought about taking a coat with him. All well. Despite the upcoming storm, it wasn't too bad out tonight. No wind, just under 50 F... the calm before the storm, he guessed. Zero did feel a little better out here, although now it was as if his head was stuffy.

The front door opened again and Rock came out. "Oh, it's you Zero."

"What are you doing here?"

"I was reading when I heard someone walking around and opening the door. Can't be too careful with you young ones in the house." He looked around, but didn't see anything worrisome.

He hadn't heard Forte last night. Zero was thankful for that oversight. "Okay." He paced along the porch, trying to clear his head.

"What are you doing up so late?"

"I can't sleep. My room is too warm."

"I'll check on it when you're ready to come in." Rock sat in one of the chairs. "Not bad out right now, but it's going to get very cold soon."

They were quiet for several minutes. Rock sat at one end of the porch and watched the dark sky. Zero paced along the porch. He noticed when Rock shivered and snapped his fingers for a warmth spell. How was he cold? Zero still felt warm and stuffy. Something wasn't quite right. He stopped by him. "Rock?"

"Hm, what?"

"I still feel warm."

He put his hand on Zero's neck gently. "Looks like you've got a fever. Does anything else feel wrong?"

"My head feels funny, like I'm stuffy inside too."

"You should get back to bed. I'll wake Roll up and see what she thinks; we'll probably take you by the hospital in the morning. You think you're up to walking back upstairs?"

"Yeah, I can." He took two steps and nearly tripped.

Rock caught his arm, then held Zero's hand. "Here."

"Thanks." That was something he liked about Rock. He was kind, but knew when too much kindness was unwanted. He gave Zero, and X, as much attention as they wanted, but not so much that it got embarrassing.

Before they got back inside, Zero collapsed. Every joint in his body had weakened and refused to work anymore. Only Rock's quick reflexes kept him from hitting the porch. "Zero?" His com light blinked as he called the hospital immediately.

Zero found his eyes could move, so he could look around some. His power core was running weak at the moment. His lungs were operating, but since nothing else wanted to move, they were constrained. As his own body began suffocating him, he felt frightened.

Rock put his hand over Zero's chest, using magic to manually keep the child breathing. Then his call was answered. "This is Rock Light; my ward Zero is displaying signs of a Pandema infection." He paused. "He's three years old, about sixty pounds. He's having difficulty breathing now."

Not even a minute later, a medic reploid teleported onto the porch. He went right to work. Protected by a heavy virus screen wrapped around his head, the medic attached a device to Zero's chest to keep his lungs working and to supplement his weakened power core. He did several other things: ran a quick scanner by his outlet port, checked certain areas physically, and picked up Zero's left hand and flexed the fingers.

An ambulance arrived as the medic finished his initial tasks. Their emergency care system for reploids seemed efficient. The adult wondered how common disease viruses were in this world. He hardly heard of any in his world. There were viruses that made one act strange or lock up, but he'd never heard of one making a reploid physically ill like a human.

They were common enough problems here that the emergency team got him into a child-sized quarantine chamber swiftly, with no trouble. The chamber locked, then adjusted for his weight, size, and shape so that he was held securely and comfortably. Zero heard the team ask Rock to come along, to be checked for infection and to fill out papers.

Then the medic said, "We're going to put you to sleep so we can hook you into the deep scanner. Is that okay?"

"Yeah." He was asleep before he knew it.

* * *

December 19  
St. Jude's Children's Hospital

X stacked building blocks in the waiting room to pass time. Rock sat nearby, reading something. Any time now, X thought. Zero's tests had to come in soon and they would know whether his chances for survival were abysmal or hopeful.

The adult was in control for now, as the child was too distressed to handle things. They had worked through the kidnapping together and the child had almost gotten past it. The added stress and anxiety worried the adult. In a book on curse mechanics, they had learned that most psychological curses could evolve nastier symptoms under stressful or abnormal conditions. It hadn't evolved yet, but given Pandema infections usually lasted for days, it could.

X paused in his thoughts and turned a nearby fan on with telekinesis. He wondered briefly why they didn't have better air circulation here, but soon went back to thinking. There was a therapist visiting them for Shadow Palace on a regular basis. Maybe it was time for the adult to expose some of the child's problems, so he could be helped better. It was mean, yes, but it might be necessary.

"You've been very quiet," Rock said.

"Um..."

"What are you thinking? Are you just worried about Zero?"

The adult tried to think of an appropriate response. He decided against giving one. Instead, he slipped into the back of the mind and put the child in control.

The child closed his eyes. 'You're a meanie.'

'He's asking you a question.'

He opened his eyes. Rock had put his hand on X's shoulder, offering to hold and hug him if wanted. X twisted his hair around his fingers. "I, um..."

Someone came in, so they both looked up. But it wasn't a doctor. It was Roll, with a cloth bag. She smiled at them, but was obviously worried too. "I brought you some lunch."

"Thanks. Do you want a sandwich, X? There's a turkey and cheese sandwich, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

"I don't want one."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. His stomach fluttered in nervousness.

Roll sat on the other side of X. "Have you heard anything about Zero yet?"

"No. They've got him breathing on his own, but his fever hasn't dropped. We're waiting on test results."

"It can't be that much longer." Then she hugged X. "Are you okay, dear?"

The child wasn't sure if he loved the attention or hated it. "Zero had better be okay."

Then the doctor came in. Rock got up to greet him and look over the lab results. "We've identified Pandema-12," the doctor said. "Because of that, we've diverted two extra computers to help with the deep scan."

"Why's that?" X asked, afraid to ask, but more afraid of not knowing.

"He needs it."

Roll touched the doctor's arm. "You probably should tell him the full situation. He's smart enough to know and will worry more if you keep it secret."

"If that's fine with you. Pandema-12 isn't the most lethal strain, but we have to capture it quickly. The high fevers and arcing it creates can cause heavy internal damage, especially to the central programming core. The arcing in particular worries us; that could kill in an instant if he's not watched constantly."

"But with three computers, it shouldn't take long," Roll said.

"Not as long. It could still be two or three days. Hopefully no longer than five."

"Anything we can do about it?" Roll asked. "We run an inn through our house, so I've already got all devices being scanned."

"In that case, I want every reploid that's been in your house for the past fifty hours checked for infection. Do your best to get them into any hospital; it's for their own good."

Roll nodded. "I'll check the guest records and contact them all."

"Let me scan the three of you here for now."

Roll sat still and was cleared first. Rock had been cleared last night, but he got scanned again for good measure. However, X felt terrified. According to the mirror, doctors could inflict horrible things on patients and anything they handled should be distrusted. He shrank back into his chair. "I don't want to."

"It's okay X," Roll said. "If they can catch the infection before it activates, it's easier to find the source virus."

"I don't want to be here anymore. Let's take Zero and go home."

Rock sat down again and took X's hands. "We can't take him home now. Be still."

"It's for your own good," the doctor said. He tried to attach his scanner.

X squirmed away. "Leave me alone!"

Rock let go with one hand, but tightened his grip on the other. He put his free hand on X's forehead. "It will be okay." He cast a relaxant spell.

The child was still terrified, but now lacked the energy to do anything about it. Instead, he started crying. Rock put him in his lap so he could be scanned.

"He's not normally like this," Roll said. She watched him, puzzled.

"He's afraid of everything," Rock said. "He's been like this all along, but has imagined all sorts of defenses to appear normal. They're wearing thin. I realized this last night when I brought him here."

And the adult was being mean instead of helpful, the child thought with some anger. He watched the doctor warily, still crying, waiting for that evil side to come out. What would happen? Would the doctor try to turn him into a zombie, or just give him a throbbing headache? The scanning device barely tickled his central core, but he knew that was just a start.

And then the scanner was done scanning. The doctor looked at the result screen, then touched X's neck. "He's infected too, likely the same strain because he has the initial fever too. Let's get him into IC before his body gives out."

Rock stood up. Roll brushed some hair out of X's face. "They'll take good care of you," she said, trying to encourage him.

"I know how it is under curses," Rock said quietly, as he carried X down the hall. "The more you hide from it, the stronger it becomes."

"Do you know how to weaken them?"

"Sometimes mine does and I feel sort of happy. But I don't know how it works that way."

X's third eye blinked, to the vision he had last night. In particular, of his father seeing him at the illusionary fountain. "They used me to lock your curse in."

Rock's body stiffened. He didn't like being reminded of that.

"You thought I was dead. But I am here, alive. If you want to be happy again, make me feel safe."

They were in the Intensive Care area where Zero was, nearby. Rock turned his head to look at X. "Do you mean that?"

"It's only logical. Lulani said our curses were linked, so I would think..." then he stopped. He couldn't speak anymore. He found he couldn't move anymore.

Rock closed his eyes. X saw that he was on the brink of tears, but his curse prevented that from happening. "Don't die, X. Don't die."

* * *

December 20

Rock was worried. That was one of the emotions Soul Winter allowed. He talked with Blues most of last evening about the illness. His brother had been around him the most, so knew the best ways to communicate with him. But there wasn't anything Rock could do, except be here and try to keep the boys' spirits up.

He was sitting by X's chamber. His son wasn't really awake and wasn't really asleep; Rock wondered if X knew he was there. Sometimes he talked.

The doctor came to check on X, so Rock went to Zero's chamber nearby. Since the computer indicated that Zero was fully awake, Rock tapped on the side. "Zero, I'm here."

"Hi Rock," Zero replied. He sounded exhausted.

"Make sure you drink your water."

"I know. Where's X? I haven't heard from him and I was sure he'd come visit."

"Oh, I forgot you didn't hear. X got sick too."

"He did? I didn't mean to make him sick."

"It's not your fault."

"Do you know if I can talk to him?"

"I can ask, but he's sleeping right now."

"Okay, just wondering. I get bored sometimes..." his voice trailed off. The computer indicated that he had fallen asleep again.

* * *

Am I dreaming? Zero thought he was. The sky was filled with clouds of fire. The ground was covered in sheets of ice. Walking over the ice, he going to the highest hill in sight.

When he got there, he was met with a strange creature. Or a strange machine. It looked like a small UFO, about two feet across. On top of the UFO was a cylinder filled with vibrant green liquid. Inside the cylinder's liquid was a human brain. Attached to the brain were the creature's eyes (glowing black, strangely enough), a mechanical mouth, part of a spine, plastic wires for blood, and metal wires for control. And on the UFO base, Zero noticed a gold orb, a silver orb, and a bone ring.

But he didn't feel worried or disgusted by the brain and its machinery. He thought he should be; it was rather gross. Instead, he felt submissive to the thing. He had no idea why. Maybe those glowing black eyes had something to do with it.

Then the mechanical mouth moved. "It's been some time," the brain said.

Zero didn't respond, but felt hot. Maybe his fever was getting to his dreams. Last thing he was aware of, he was talking to Rock about talking to X.

"Don't be impatient," the brain said condescendingly.

Zero felt as if he'd been scolded by Roll. He never liked it when she did. She made him feel more shame than anyone else could.

"If you want to be a full soul, you need to stick to the plan. I know that you've been waiting a long time."

Again, he said nothing, but he noticed his mouth was moving. 'That's strange,' the child thought.

'I don't like this,' the adult thought.

"Yes, I did base you off the child," the brain said. "I still don't get it. I carefully planned all my creations from beginning to end, and somehow a completely randomized blend comes up with something better. And of two older models. It's been some time since Forte was the best warrior on my side, and the mother..."

'I think it's the Fire Dragon,' the child felt, alarmed.

'Shh,' the adult advised. 'We could learn something useful.'

"You are slightly different," the brain said, having been interrupted. "I did some modifications to increase your skills. They'll have to be redone, but once you're completely free, no one will be able to stop you."

The Fire Dragon responded, but neither the adult nor child knew what he was saying.

"This is how it will run."

The brain vanished. So did the sky of fire and ground of ice. This area was dimly lit, like the predawn hour. There was a rune drawn on the ground. Three torches were lit inside it, all three with black flames. X was kneeling in the center of the rune with his eyes closed. His hands were clasped to his chest, as if he were praying. But there was a strange desperate air to him.

The Fire Dragon in Zero's body approached the rune's circle.

X looked up and opened his eyes. No longer grass green, they were now icy blue. His lips were pale blue and his skin was pale. His hair was longer and silver in color. His armor was covered in hoar frost. It was as if he'd been frozen to death in the snowfields.

The Fire Dragon stepped into the rune's circle.

Not taking his eyes off the Dragon, X put his hands into his lap. "Are you here to protect me or to destroy me?"

Zero activated a rune blade, but not Dusty. This blade was black with blood red flames wrapping around it. "To destroy you," the Fire Dragon said. He thrust the fiery sword into X's power core.

X died.

The icy world burst into flames. Zero screamed.

And abruptly got cold. When he opened his eyes, he noticed with some confusion that he was in the icy field again with his guardian spirit and the Fire Dragon. Finally realizing they were alert, the Dragon shrieked and rushed at them. The guardian activated his plasma blade, but then the Dragon abruptly crashed into a translucent gray shield.

Curious (and braver than the child), the older soul went up to the shield and touched it. He was unable to move through it either. "This wasn't here before…" he said. "It's locking the dragon out of conscious control of your body."

"Really?" The child looked to the dragon, then grinned. "Hah, you can't get me now!"

"It might not be wise to antagonize it still," the adult said, coming back. But there was a smirk on his face. "But unless you call on it purposely, it could be pretty much helpless."

The dragon hissed, causing the other two to laugh.

* * *

December 20

There was a tap at his chamber. "X? Stay awake please."

"I'm tired, dad," he mumbled.

"You need to drink something. Then we'll let you go back to sleep."

He sipped at the water tube he had. It was probably better that he did drink himself, but his mind felt so hazy and hot. Why was he here again? He didn't want to think or do anything, other than sleep. Oh right, he was infected with Pandema.

X heard a garble of noises, but they didn't sound important, until, "Garble, garble, X?"

"Huh?" He tried to listen, but a sudden pain in his head made it hard.

"Focus on me, X," the doctor said. "Foc...garble."

"What's going on?" X said, feeling panicky. There was a rash of beeping and buzzing.

"Sounds like equipment test day," the adult X said.

Neither the child nor the adult knew how it happened, but now they were seated at a complex computer station. There was a wall of screens in front of them, and a curved panel of electronics right in their reach. They were in swiveling office chairs. The whole array seemed optimized for maximum efficiency of two proficient workers.

"Where are we?" the child asked.

"This looks like my workplace," the adult said. "The spotter station, actually. Oh, except that the screens are showing your Monsteropolis. I recognize your school."

"It is my school. This is where you work?" The child looked at all the buttons and touch screens.

"Sometimes I work as a spotter. Hmm." The adult activated a touch screen and made the view of the school switch to a view of the Light's house.

"Is this like the City Guard?"

He paused in thought. "Not really. The Maverick Hunters are more like the Snow Patrol. We go all over the world to stop maverick reploids from harming others, no matter who those others are."

"That sounds awesome. But I don't think I could do anything like that. I'm too scared."

"That mirror was probably exaggerating the dangers."

The child shrugged. "I guess some of them, like the staplers. But I still get nervous whenever I have to use one."

"Your dad knows now. He might know a way to lessen or even undo your curse."

"That'd be nice." He twisted his hair with his fingers, as the child always did when especially nervous. "You know, Zero was with me when I saw the mirror."

"He was?"

"He never actually saw the evil mirror, but sometimes, I kinda wonder which one of us is worse off for it. I'm scared of everything, but he... he had to listen to me and he was trapped in a cage. And then the Dark Hunters made him feel so helpless all the time, so he was drawn to accept the evil Fire Dragon. But even he scares me now. With the Fire Dragon, he actually scares me the most."

The adult thought carefully; this was well beyond his normal range of problems. "But you're staying friends with him, so he can be stronger against the Fire Dragon."

"I hope I'm helping. Zero wants to protect me, I know he does. But the Fire Dragon wants to destroy me. I don't know why, but it's always hated me."

"What can I do to help you?"

"You're already helping me."

"But I'm just living a normal life with you."

"I know. I can't ever be normal. But you know how that is too, right? You can't ever be normal either."

The adult paused. "I guess not. I never thought of it that way, but I am different. Even here... I'm a pacifist in a group that rewards military thinking and lifestyle. But I have to do it. I have to temper them, or else things will really get out of control. Different isn't always bad."

"I wish it didn't make me feel like a freak, though."

"You're not a freak. You can use your skills to help people. You're good with healing powers, so maybe you should consider being a doctor or a white wizard. People would be grateful if you did something like that."

"Maybe. Oh, I want to show you something, while I'm thinking of it." The child checked the array in front of him.

"What do you want me to see?"

"This."

The largest screen changed to show a spell crest. It initially looked like a sunburst, but a closer look showed it was thirteen swords piercing through two circles. The outside had a ring of runes. Through the child's mind, the adult could read most of them. 'Upon vernal equinox, (unreadable) to bring together a child of fear and a child of rage. With the death blood of innocence, death to the crest children and life to the frozen planet. The one who brings summer and the one who brings winter shall commence a fatal battle (unreadable).'

Inside the crest was a kneeling childlike angel. His hands were clasped to his chest as if in prayer or as if accepting an unavoidable doom. The adult wasn't sure which image was correct. "What is this?"

"It's an evil spell crest. It's the one that must be broken." Then a high-pitched beep caused him to jump. "Wh-what was that?"

"That's an alert call," the adult said, looking over the console and finding the line it was come in on. "I'm not sure why it activated here, but…"

The large screen then changed again. This time, it showed a darkened computer lab, with only a single console activated. In the chair in front of it, Forte ran his hands through his hair, his helmet on the ground beside him. ****, I wish I was an authentic reprogrammer," he grumbled. "I know I have to use a virus to get something like this secure, but computer, is there anything I can use besides a Pandema strain to get it installed?"

"Nothing else is fully compatible with this program," the computer replied. "Anything that might be able to carry it would alter it. The Pandema strain will not recognize it as foreign data and will also give the standard immunity to further Pandema infections."

"But that could very well kill him! Or even worse…" sighing, he put his hands over his face.

"What was he doing?" child X asked, pointing to a date on the screen. "That was a week ago."

"Hmm," the adult thought, tapping his finger on the desk. He had an idea of what was happening in that video, but wasn't sure he wanted to tell the child that.

After a minute, Forte put his hands back down. It seemed that he had cried some. "All right, if it puts Zero beyond Master Wily's control. I… I'll have to tell him truth then, just in case."

* * *

December 21

Zero was awake in his chamber. Bored, he waited to hear the reassuring tap on the chamber that meant Rock was watching over him. But there was no sound. The minutes went by increasingly silent.

Then there were some clicks and taps. Someone was using the equipment watching him. "Where's Rock?" he asked aloud.

"He's sleeping," the female voice answered. That was one of the nurses. "We had to sleep spell him because he hasn't slept this entire time."

"Really?"

"Yes, he was here constantly with you both. We don't want to make him ill too."

"All right. Hey, can I come out of here?"

"No."

Fidgeting in the chamber, he asked, "Why not? I feel all right."

"The virus has dulled your pain sensors, so you don't feel anything's wrong. But you're still infected."

"When can I come out of here? I'm bored. Can I talk to X?"

"You can't come out until the virus is found and extracted. And I'm sorry, but you can't talk to X. He's not doing well."

"But we have the same virus."

"He's taking it harder than you are."

The conversation was interrupted by a computer warble.

"Great, the computers have found your source virus. Hang on; once we get a doctor free, we'll get you to extraction."

"Will it help X, since you know where mine is?"

"It might, if it's in the same location. I'm putting you to sleep for the operation."

He made a face, even if she couldn't see. "I don't want to sleep anymore."

"Trust me; you don't want to have your programming operated on with you awake."

* * *

Roll was supposed to be working, but she was too worried to concentrate. With Pandema 12, if the source virus wasn't located in five days, chances were slim that the infected reploid would survive. Zero had been sick for three days now, X for two and a half. At this point, every hour counted. She hoped and prayed that they would survive.

Rock was sleeping now. One of the nurses called her three hours ago asking if they could put a sleep spell on him. His curse and his worry for both children conspired to keep him awake and weaken him. Roll approved it and wondered if she should try the same thing. Sleep had been hard to come by this week.

She paused by Zero's room, then decided to see if anything needed cleaning up in there. Everyone else at the inn checked out. Only the boys had gotten infected. And the only electronic equipment that was malfunctioning was a video game unit that they had been playing a few days ago. But that unit had been in the household for years and no one had gotten sick playing it before. One of them, probably Zero because he got ill first, must have picked the virus up outside and passed it to the other through that toy. Scenarios like that were why reploid children got sick more often then adults. They simply never thought to check their electronic equipment before using it.

Zero's room was neat and tidy. It surprised Roll how neat these two boys were. Previously, the boys she had adopted had always been bad about keeping messy rooms. Zero and X kept their things tidy on their own, with no hinting at all. However, his bedside table had a drawer partly sticking out because something was caught. Roll opened the drawer to tuck the papers back in and saw a picture.

It was of Zero and Forte at the Monsteropolis zoo. Forte was trying to get Zero to look at the camera, but the child was too intent on checking out a showy orange orchid nearby. Zero was a small child, but this picture had him even smaller, barely a foot high. The way his body was formed and the way he held himself was telling. After taking care of many reploid children, Roll knew Zero had to be around three months old in this photo.

And Forte was with him.

She picked up the picture and immediately thought of the computer downstairs where they stored premature reploid minds. Particularly of her only child, Adrian, who had been in that computer longer than X had been in similar storage. A few months ago, an argument with Zero had gotten Roll to discover Adrian was missing from that computer. And here Zero was with Forte, Adrian's father, almost three years ago.

How long had it been since she looked after Adrian in storage? Probably four years, Roll guessed. She had been busy ever since she opened the inn after her father died. And then ten years ago, her inn became very popular after a positive review by a famous critic. So Zero got her to discover Adrian was missing, only to turn out to be Adrian himself.

But she thought Forte was dead, shortly before or after Rock had killed (or may not have killed) Master Albert Wily. That time was still filled with uncertainty. But here he was. She knew it was him. So things she thought were long gone may still be around.

Roll looked at her son's picture, knowing him for the first time. Reploid children were supposed to instinctively know their mothers, and the other way around. But Adrian was taken out so early and kept hibernating so long that perhaps he had forgotten her and his name change had fooled her. That was terrible. Maybe Zero would remember if she hinted at it subtlety.

She hoped she didn't lose him just as she discovered who he really was.

* * *

December 22  
Light residence

Zero had figured that when he was let out of the quarantine chamber, he'd be so excited that he'd jump on and off the walls for freedom. Instead, he was tired and achy. Roll had to encourage him out of bed and hold his hand for balance. "Why am I up?" he asked blearily.

"You have visitors," she said.

"I do?"

Before Roll could tell him who, Iris came in and hugged him. "Zero, you're okay!"

Zero struggled away. "Hey, lemme go."

She giggled. "Aw, you're no fun."

Sandy laughed at her. "Now don't hurt him; he just got better."

"Okay." She got off the chair he was sitting on and sat in another chair. "See, we know how boring the hospital is, so we wanted to visit you there, but mom wouldn't let us."

"That's okay." Zero yawned. "Sorry, I don't know how long I can stay awake."

"At least you were only sick for three days," Sandy said. "I was sick with Pandema for two weeks. It was like the worst headache, earache, and sore throat ever and I was certain they had put me in the quarantine chamber upside down."

"Ow," Zero replied. "I was so hot and stuffy all the time, and I felt like I got hit by a snowplow. At least, until the last day when my pain sensors got fried. Then I thought I was all right and tried to get out of the chamber."

"That's not good," Iris said. "How's X?"

"I dunno. How is he?"

"Last call I got, they had found his source virus," Roll answered.

"That's great," Iris said. "So he's coming home today?"

She shook her head. "No. They're having problems getting him ready for extraction."

Sandy looked puzzled. "How's that? Once they find the virus, they take you straight to extraction."

"From what I hear, they have him in the extraction area and have a team on standby to work on him. But he had some bad arcing yesterday and he's been running unstable ever since. They'll work on him as soon as he's stable enough."

"But they'll save him, won't they?" Zero asked.

"They should," Roll replied (although no one was entirely sure).

* * *

December 23

Zero guided his broom to float up the stairs and down the second floor hall. Attached to the broom was a small suitcase with clothing inside. He brought the broom with the suitcase into the right room. "I told you I could get it," he called triumphantly.

Blues laughed and took his suitcase. "That you did, shortcake." After putting his things in his room, he headed back downstairs.

Zero followed him. "Where'd you come in from?"

"Out and around," was the answer. "I'm always home for Christmas. Isn't that right, Roll?"

"But you never call to say when you'll be back," she said, playfully shoving him.

"I told Rock."

"And when was that?"

"Uh, this morning?" They laughed and sat down in the main room. "So how's your training going, Zero?"

"King Gage comes to teach me twice a month, and I practice once a week. I can fight you now."

Blues shook his head. "Not this time."

"Why not? You afraid I'd beat you?"

He grinned and tried to muss up Zero's hair. "Confident, are we? No, I'm not going to fight anyone recovering from a serious illness. And I'm not going to be here long; I've got a meeting scheduled for the 28th a few towns over."

"But I'm fine right now." Against his will, he yawned. "No, I really am."

"Sure, but I'm still going to wait until you're at full strength. What's the latest on X?"

"He's not infected anymore," Zero said.

Roll nodded. "Yes, but he's in programming repair at the moment. His body was still under paralysis when they got him out of extraction."

"At least they saved him. Is Rock holding up okay?"

Roll shrugged. "I guess. You would know better than I would. He won't come home until X can. But given how X is, it's probably best."

"Is he going to be the same?" Zero asked; the child was expressing a fear he had just thought of. "I mean, if they have to work on his programming, can he change?"

"No," Blues replied. "They're just fixing what got damaged. They aren't legally allowed to change any programming in any living reploid without that reploid's written consent."

"Oh good."

"I'd better drop by the hospital to check on them." Blues got up, then tapped Zero's shoulder. "And you'd better go to bed and get back your strength."

"I don't want to go to bed," Zero said, but his body made him yawn again.

* * *

December 24

The video game unit had been taken out of Zero's room, so he passed the time by playing Chinese Checkers by himself. Sometimes he glanced out the window, but it was hard to see. After being forecast for a week, the blizzard had finally come in. It was ferocious. The winds howled outside and the snow was sometimes so thick that Zero couldn't see the street outside. It reminded him of a snowstorm he and X had run into when they were trying to cross the snowfields, only much worse.

Around noon, he heard the front door open. He ran out of his room and halfway down the stairs. He felt a burst of cold air even from there. Snow flew in until Blues shut the door firmly. Rock was faintly glowing orange with a warmth spell. Keeping part of his cloak around him, he was carrying X.

Zero jumped down the rest of the stairs. "X, you're back!"

X smiled at him, but didn't say anything. Much like Zero had been, he looked exhausted.

"Did you guys have to come back during the storm?" Roll asked. She touched X's cheek to make sure he wasn't too cold. "Are you all right?"

"I'm tired," X replied quietly.

"Yeah, he wore himself out taking a simple physical and walking test," Blues joked. "I hope you've got something warm for lunch."

"I've got homemade chicken noodle soup for everyone. Try to eat some, X, and then you can go to bed."


	24. Gold, Silver, and Bone

December 25, XX54  
Light residence

It was early Christmas morning and the kitchen was full of excitement and conversation. Zero felt it fully. He felt great; he wanted to be outside playing in the massive piles of snow or inside playing some active game. Nearby, X was curled up in a green armchair. He had gotten up, come downstairs, but then dozed off again. Despite his current lethargy, he was going to be just fine.

And as if the holiday, their health, and Zero secretly knowing about his father wasn't enough excitement, Blues was home too. He was the source of most of the talking. Rock was quiet and kept to himself, but Blues was perfectly happy to tell tall tales of their adventures. He told stories while he and Zero dunked holiday treats into colored sugar.

Roll was making something that reminded Zero of donuts, except that she called them Cloud Cakes. When she was done frying the dough, she would put them on a rack. Then Zero and Blues would put them into red, green, or white sugar to coat; Zero wound up tasting more than a little bit of sugar in the process, because it got all over his hands. Then Sonya would give them a bit of frosting for extra decoration. Finally, Star put them in wax paper holders and arranged them in a wicker basket. The Cloud Cakes would be offered to the guests first, then Roll's employees like Sonya, and then the family would get whatever was left. But she was making a lot, so everyone would get some.

"And the place we got sent to was one of the most amazing places I've ever seen. The Pyramid of the Sun." Blues was fully enthusiastic about telling his stories. The excitement of new places was in his smile.

"What was it like?" Zero said, fully enthusiastic about hearing the stories, to the point of sitting still listening when he really wanted to be running around somewhere doing something.

"It was a mile high, I swear, and that base was huge. It was made of beautiful gold marble blocks that had to have been carried in from downstream."

"But you said the Rylia River had terrible rapids."

"It does, and that ancient people still managed to get those blocks to their chosen site. And that is an overwhelming task, even by magic. Right X?"

X was sort of awake. "Telekinesis works best with objects you can handle yourself. Anything larger than yourself takes significant aura and drains you quickly."

"Just making sure you're awake over there," Blues said. "But the marble wasn't the only thing impressive about it. There were these huge windows on every side, in the shape of triangles. And the glass was the same hue as the marble."

"That sounds awesome."

"You want to know awesome? Then you'd have to get inside the Pyramid of the Sun. That place is filled with rainbows."

"Rainbow?"

"Yes, rainbows. The windows feed a system of mirrors and prisms so that, as long as it's sunny outside, there's a rainbow in every room."

"Wow."

"Yeah, I had the same reaction, but not for long. There was a tiamat inside that gave Rock and I a hard time. But we were the perfect ones for the job." Blues winked, then took one of the sugared cakes and curled his fingers around it.

Zero saw this, but said nothing.

"Don't you dare eat them now," Roll said. "You know the routine."

"Oh fine." Blues set the cake at Sonya's station. "See, I may be one of the best swordsmen in the world, but I still can't snitch food from my sister. Don't let her domestic demeanor fool you; she could be quite the fighter if she put her mind to it."

Roll shook her head and smiled at the comment.

"Actually, any woman with a heavy cast iron pan is more dangerous than any man with a sword," Star said. "Never get a woman mad if... just never."

"Hmm, what's that you were going to say?" Sonya said, in a mock threat.

"I love you, honey."

Roll looked at Sonya, then both women started laughing.

"And those are words to live by," Blues said, tapping Zero's nose and getting green sugar on it.

Zero grinned. "Okay."

"All right, this is the last of them," Roll said. "Zero, go wash your hands... and your face up."

"Right away." Since he was so eager to be doing something, he had been assigned to deliver the cakes, so long as he promised not to eat any on delivery.

Roll met him in the hallway after he washed up. "Here's the list of the guests we have and where they are."

"Right. I'll get everyone." He looked; there were a lot of names on the list.

"Good. And you should wear this." She held out a plush red hat with a fluffy white brim and a fluffy pom-pom at the tip. A piece of fake holly was on the brim and a trio of small bells were on the tip.

Zero made a face. "I'll look silly in that."

"No you won't." She put it on him anyways. "You look adorable."

"I don't want to be adorable. I'm gonna be a great hero someday and great heroes don't wear silly hats." The hat's bells jingled as he protested wearing it.

"Please? It's just for the holiday."

"Oh fine. But just this once."

"Thank you." She kissed his forehead.

Zero felt like that was a good reason for not wearing the silly hat. But Roll was especially cheerful this morning and her smile to him seemed brighter than ever. Maybe she just liked the holiday. Despite himself, Zero smiled back.

Blues came out with the wicker basket. "Okay, they should be fine, so long as you don't go running into things."

He went over to take the basket. "I won't."

"What's with the silly hat?"

Zero made a face again. "Roll made me wear it. But I shall carry on bravely despite silly hats." He went off to deliver the Cloud Cakes.

Blues chuckled. "I love that kid's attitude."

Roll smiled. "He's so cute."

"Hey, don't go calling my protege cute."

Star and Sonya laughed from the kitchen. "Since when is he your protege?" Star asked.

"Since I decided on it."

* * *

December 25

The City Guard had to spend most of Christmas day helping to clear the snow piles and ice sheets left by the blizzard. Rock was out doing that, but he came back for two hours around lunch so he could be there for the gift exchange. It was just the three Light siblings, X, and Zero in the second floor den, but it was a wonderful time.

And then there was one last present, but no one knew where it came from. It had been tucked away in the branches of tree and had taken Zero's sharp eyes to spot. Wrapped simply in brown paper and twine, it was for Zero and X. They silently agreed it might be from Forte.

"Did you do that?" Roll asked Blues.

He shook his head. "No, I already gave them my gifts."

They looked at Rock, who seemed just as puzzled. The two brothers moved in strategically closer, in case it was something unwanted and unwelcome. "Careful with that," Rock said.

"It's okay, dad," X said as he unknotted the twine. The brown paper came off easily.

It was a handsome wooden container, about the size of a cigar box. There was a rune on the top, but not a wolf as they would have expected Forte to use. It was a five-pointed star in green; X interpreted it as meaning 'guide'. Inside the box, padded with dark blue velvet, was a key ring with three keys. One was gold with a red pearl in its handle. One was silver with a black pearl in its handle. And the last was made of several bones, including a rodent skull with diamonds in the eye sockets.

Zero leaned in for a better look. "Those are creepy and awesome."

X picked up the key ring. "Yeah, they are. Neat old keys."

"I wonder what they go to," Roll said. "They seem a bit expensive to give to children."

"If they're real," Blues said. He touched the gold key and examined it. "And yes, they do seem to be authentic."

"What do we do with them?" X looked into the rodent's diamond eyes.

"If they are authentic metals, they should probably go into a safety deposit box," Roll suggested.

"Yes, that would be safest," Rock agreed.

Blues examined the silver key next. "I'm not sure that would be safest. Someone definitely wanted these to come into your hands and if we put them away, chances are they will return. That rune on the cover tells me so much. But what you're meant to do with them... I don't know." He looked at the bone key.

Zero spotted a fine crack in the box lining and managed to pull the lining out. There was a folded piece of paper inside. He opened it to take a look.

"What's that say?" X asked.

"Nothing," Zero replied. "It's a big mess of scribbles."

"Maybe it's a cipher."

"No, it's just scribbles." He put the paper down. It was filled with disconnected dots, lines, and shapes.

"That's a scrambled crest," Rock said. "Blues and I have run across them before."

"Yeah. Mind if I try?"

X looked at Zero. "Go ahead."

Blues studied the paper, then placed his fingers on five small triangles. He checked the 'guide' rune, then dragged his fingers across the paper. The small triangles followed. All the other shapes, lines, and dots scattered about the page like leaves on a windy pond.

"Nifty," Zero said.

"Shh." Blues copied the 'guide' rune with his fingers and the five triangles, then brought his hand off the page. The shapes moved about, eventually settling into a spell crest. "Now that's a strange one... never seen one like it."

X paled, then screamed. Zero's systems went cold; he darted away and hid by Roll. Rock brought X onto his lap and hugged him. Roll touched Zero's shoulder. Blues slapped the piece of paper, causing the rune to scramble again. Then Zero got over his initial fright and went over to help calm X down.

"What was that?" Roll asked. "You didn't do anything with it, did you?"

"It's powerless in this form," Blues said, shaking his head.

"You're safe here," Rock told X.

"What was that rune?" Blues asked Zero.

"Um... it was on a door that led to a mirror..."

"Don't talk about that mirror!" X cried out.

Zero took X's hand. "It was an evil mirror."

"It was the Paranoid Mirror," Rock said.

Blues looked down at the paper. "I'm going to get this disposed of properly, just in case."

"What about those keys?" Roll asked.

"Rock and I will look at them later. I don't think they're bad, but I also still think that they won't be put away easily."

* * *

"Do we want to try having our own kids again?" Sonya asked. "We could always adopt; it'd be safer."

Star kissed her cheek. "But I know you want your own children. We should go check in with a doctor and see why you've been having trouble."

"But we've lost three already. I don't think I can..."

"If we find out why, we could succeed."

There was a knock at their door. Star got up and let Blues in. "Sorry if I was interrupting anything," he said.

Star shrugged. "We were just talking."

"Good thing you interrupted now and not later," Sonya joked.

Blues smiled slyly. "Well then, I won't interrupt for long. Star, I need a sorcerer's help with this. Tell me what you think of this crest." He handed over a well creased piece of paper.

Sonya came over to look too. It was an odd crest: a child-like angel kneeling, perhaps praying, surrounded by thirteen swords. Star ran his fingers over the design, looking for hints to construction methods and detail significance.

Then he shook his head. "I can't interpret it like this. It's incomplete."

"This is incomplete? No wonder I felt nothing change when I unscrambled it."

Star ran his finger along the edge of the outermost circle. "There should be spell runes here. That would tell me what this crest is used for, but the runes have been removed. Although... if you give me some time, I might be able to deduce something by deconstructing it. That'll take me at least a week. Anything significant that came with this paper?"

Blues nodded. "The boys received an unmarked gift in brown paper and twine. There was a wooden box, made of pine, with the rune 'guide' on it. There were three keys; come by my room tomorrow and I'll show them to you. This was under the lining. And Rock thinks it has something to do with the Paranoid Mirror."

"The Paranoid Mirror was shattered a long time ago," Sonya said. "Before reploids came, the mermaids say, a victim of the mirror's curse shattered it so that no piece was bigger than a man's eye."

"Someone must have repaired it," Blues said. "X is under the curse of the Paranoid Mirror."

* * *

December 29, XX54

The boys were allowed to keep the keys, as no one could find anything obviously wrong about them. Now that X was well enough to be active again, the two of them looked the keys over. "They're rather nice," X said. "Even the skull key."

"I like the skull key."

"You would." X caused a minor spark of magic, to test out the silver key. "They might be magic."

"They are magic. I've known for a while; it's been so hard to keep quiet."

"You know about these keys?"

Zero nodded. "They will help us get home."

"Really?"

"These keys got the children here, and they will help get the adults back home. They're the keys that I stole to get out of Ikari Tower. It took me a while to recognize them, but they are."

"So these are the keys to Shadow Palace."

"This gold one," he held it out, "will get you into and out of Shadow Palace from any door with a keyhole. This silver one will get you anywhere within Shadow Palace, so long as there is a keyhole." Then he held the bone key. "This one's different. This one is a skeleton key to Ikari Tower, but it won't open every lock there. It will, however, allow us to go straight from Shadow Palace to Ikari Tower."

"That's how Wily's reploids get everywhere so quickly. They use Shadow Palace as a bridge."

"The two of us have been discussing these keys and how to use them. We think that the adults need to get to the top of Ikari Tower to go home."

"Logical, since we came here from the top of Ikari Tower."

"Right. The children have to take the adults there, but we don't want to leave the children back in the Tower. We're not sure how that will work out. It is a definite that we should hang onto these keys and keep them readily available."

"Yeah." X thought about it. Child X was keeping quiet, still shy. The adult thought of something; it seemed mean again, but it was obvious now that the child wasn't going to do anything unless prodded. "Actually, there's this mirror..."

"The Paranoid Mirror?"

"No, no, not that one. I wouldn't ever suggest going near that mirror again. There's a Dream Mirror which both of us have read about. That one could help us too. It makes shadows of dreams and dreams of shadows."

"Huh?"

"It's in Shadow Palace. I believe that if we approach it, we will find the adults as shadows within. If we draw them out, we can return the children here. We, I mean, the children will go to sleep and become dreams. As dreams and shadows, we can go back into Shadow Palace, get to Ikari Tower's top, and then safely separate. The adults will go back home and the children should awaken back here with no ill effects." X shrugged. "It's only a theory, however."

"Well," Zero looked out the door of X's room. "Do you think we can sneak into Shadow Palace and find out?"

"They think we're in bed. We might be able to."

"The keys will allow us to not waste time and not go crazy. Just so long as they don't get stolen again."

"Let's try it."

They got up and shut X's door. X took the gold key and placed it in the lock. When it turned, the lock emitted a shift in aura. When he opened the door again, it led into a red stone walkway that appeared to be outside in the summer sun. They entered Shadow Palace.

"This heat is awful," Zero said. Before X could say anything, he went on, "That's how summer is; the humidity is the worst part." There was a pause, then, "I don't like summer."

X chuckled. "Talking to yourself?"

"Of course. We do it a lot when no one's around. Don't you?"

"Sometimes. The child's not talkative. So how does the silver key work? I can't think of it."

"Here, let me use it." X handed the keys over. Zero searched the summer courtyard until he spotted a door with a keyhole. He placed the silver key there. "We need to find the Dream Mirror."

The keyhole shifted aura. When opened, the door led to a spiral staircase going down. The walls here were damp, made of blue-gray stone. Torches lit this area. Zero led the way, but the staircase was spiraled so tightly that X could only half see him. He did hear the splash. "Is it flooded?"

"Only by three inches."

X stepped into the water and looked over the large room. Although the water was clear, the room was so dim it was hard to see the floor. "I hope there's no surprise holes down here."

"Or water monsters."

"You didn't have to mention monsters."

"Sorry."

After some searching in the dim room, they found the Dream Mirror. It was made of a black material, framed by stylized white feathers. It showed reflections of the children walking up to it and it showed shadows of the adults, sleeping within. Although most shadows were black, these bodies were faintly colored, as one might see the adults in a dark room. "This is a little spooky," X said.

"Wow, you look even more awesome than the museum doll," Zero said, then chuckled and added, "Uh, thanks."

"I think if we just touch it," X put his hands on the mirror. The adult mind jumped out of the child's body and into the adult shadow. From both X's perspectives, the black mirror vanished. The adult caught the child before he stumbled, as he'd been leaning on the mirror.

"Is that it?" Zero asked.

"That's it," adult X said.

Adult Zero moved into the shadow. The feathered frame remained, but the mirror part was completely gone. "This should work," adult Zero said. "Now we just have to figure out the dream part."

"And we have to get that other guy here too," child Zero said.

"Sigma? Yeah, we should take him back with us. He'll cause nothing but trouble here."

"That'll be tricky," adult X said. "Are you all right?"

Child X looked at the watery floor and was quiet.

"Have you figured out how we got here in the first place? I never thought there could be multiple worlds."

Adult X tapped his arm, thinking. "It's always been a possibility in theoretical physics. I felt it was a strong one too; think of all the time warping weapons that Dr. Wily made in our world, without a spec of magic. Being able to warp time implies space can be warped too, and through..." he noticed a completely blank look on adult Zero's face and a puzzled one on child Zero's. "Um, a lot of conjecture, if both qualities can be manipulated, then there might be multiple worlds. Just the fact that we're here makes it true."

"But how did you cross worlds?" child Zero asked. "I mean, I was alone, and then you were with me, and I have no idea what happened in between. And you feel like that too, right?"

Adult Zero nodded.

"I don't know," Adult X said.

Child X twisted his hair in his fingers, not able to hide now. "I did call you here," he mumbled. "I'm sorry. There seemed to be no other way."

Adult X knelt by him and put his hand on the child's shoulder. "It's okay. You asked for our help. But we can't help you if we don't know what needs to be done."

"There's something horrible going on at Ikari Tower."

"Of course there is," child Zero said. "Why else would they lock you in with that mirror?"

Child X shook his head. "No, that was just the preparations."

"They were just preparing when they did that to you?" adult X asked.

"Um, see... Master Wily and Master Domino can't leave the Tower for long with the Ice Dragon running wild. I couldn't... I listened to them so many times, but I don't quite understand. But I think they called the Ice Dragon into being and lost control of her. Their plan was to summon the Fire Dragon to deal with the Ice Dragon by sacrificing both of us."

'They can't do that now," child Zero said. "We're not in Ikari Tower and we're only going to return there as dream beings."

"No, they've already finished the requirements and the crest. Zero, we're going to die on March 21st, because that crest is already active. Then the two dark Masters will cause the two Dragons to battle. It will be a very destructive battle; whichever Dragon wins, they will be able to fully control, and then no one could stop them. But I think there's two ways to prevent that."

"What has to be done?" adult Zero asked.

"Well, um," child X stopped for a moment. No one said anything until he continued. "Well if one of us happens to die before the deadline, the other will too and the Fire Dragon will come, but weaker. And then maybe my dad and the others can stop them. The other way... if we happen to kill the Ice Dragon before the deadline, it will entirely negate the crest and we'll live. But we have to kill her. Nobody else."

"But nobody's been able to beat her," child Zero said. "Blues says the closest was Sandy's father Jando and he died."

"I know. I, um... I knew how to work the computers in Ikari Tower and I read the news reports everyday, usually after you fell asleep. That's why I called you two. When I learned there were multiple worlds, I thought maybe if I got powerful and nice versions of ourselves, you might be able to fight in our place and still negate the crest. But I didn't expect this to happen, leaving us powerless like this. I'm really sorry."

Adult X hugged his child self. "It's fine. We understand your position now. But you should have spoken up sooner. We only have three months to do this."

"How do we fight a dragon?" adult Zero asked. "Especially one that overpowers every other dragon on this world. We don't have dragons in our world; at least, not real ones."

Adult X shrugged. "I've read a lot of stories, but I'm not sure how it would work in this world. And we'd have to figure out how to fight in these shadow bodies, as well as find out how to see her."

"Why's that a problem?" child Zero asked.

"Remember your father's story? Only children can see the Ice Dragon for what she is."

Adult X nodded. "Even as magical shadows, I'm not sure if we can see her directly. And you know," he turned to child X, "the public library won't have books on how to defeat dragons. Your father might, but you'd have to explain why you want them. Our best research place would be Ikari Tower's library."

"We have to go back to the Tower?" Child X looked pale, as if he'd not expected them to actually go there.

"We'll all be with you," child Zero said. "And if the dream thing does work out, we won't even really be there."

"We'll do everything we can to protect you both," adult Zero said.

"Okay, we'll go," he said reluctantly.

* * *

X's theory on turning the children into dream beings worked. Shortly after falling asleep, safely at home, they appeared by the shadow adults. Their dream forms were misty, but made of bright pastel colors. Disguised this way, the children led the adults to Ikari Tower's library. It was a cavernous room; the bookshelves were twelve feet high and filled with books. There were several reading spots with low round tables and comfortable chairs. But before they could look at any books, they had to pass approval with the librarian.

The guardian/librarian of this place was a small dragon at eight feet long from snout to tail tip. His wings were like a hummingbird's: small, lightweight, and powerfully rapid. He had three horns, one on the tip of his snout and two above his ears, as well as a colorful frill around his neck. He snorted from lounging atop his desk. "What do we have here?" he spoke in clear English. "Dreams and shadows... X?"

The child nodded. "It's me, Trisk. We need to do some research, but, um, we can't be found back here."

"You know I'm not supposed to do something against the master's will."

"Please don't tell."

Trisk curled his tail, a good sign. "You love and respect the books as much as I do. Hardly anyone left around here does. Go on, do your research. But be careful. You are only a dream now, and if you get distracted or wakened, you'll be gone."

"Ah, all right. Thank you, Trisk." X led them to the magical beasts section. "Trisk was pretty much the only good thing around here, him and his library. He was the one to teach me the languages of humans, dragons, and elves."

The two X versions found likely source books and went to read them. Adult Zero took one of the chosen set and read too. But child Zero had a tough time paying attention. He didn't like research, even if his book was a simple picture book listing types of dragons known to his world. The adult felt the same disinterest in research, but had learned to do so if needed. Child Zero was the first to start flickering as his mind tried to dream freely.

"You can go off to sleep if you want," child X said. With the two adults nearby and Trisk promising his silence, he felt less nervous about being back.

"Sure, but would you tell us how you got them here first? I want to know, but we might not be able to talk about this during the day."

"I guess, but it's a long story. Just let me tell it."

The two adults put down their books to listen.

* * *

?  
Shadow Palace

The room was entirely green. And not just any green. It was all the same hue of green; not a single highlight or shadow helped X determine where anything was. Hearing distant laughter from the shadowy monsters, he was terrified and trying to find his way to Zero. He had run so far already; he hoped he wasn't completely lost.

Because everything was the same green, X stepped into a hole without realizing it. He looked below and saw a giant mouth filled with teeth made to tear anything apart. It clashed its jaw open and closed, waving its tongue to X as an invitation to be eaten. X screamed.

But something caught him and forced him to tumble through a twisting dark tunnel. At least it wasn't green anymore. It was like a crazed corkscrew, changing slant, direction, and twists every few feet. Something slick on the walls prevented his feet from gaining a grip while making his body go faster and faster. Just as he was about to get sick, the tunnel dropped him onto a bed.

For once, the Palace looked normal. Still a bit strange, but the furniture all resembled things he'd seen either online or in his books. Except the mirror. It was black, didn't reflect at all, and had green text on it. Most of it was computer coding that X didn't understand. But he did understand the line 'World Portal: Go or Bring?'

He got off the bed and looked over the mirror that claimed to be a World Portal. "What are you?"

The green text vanished and was replaced with, 'World Portal Maker. Makes automatic runic calculations for transport of people and items through various worlds. You may go anywhere in the multiverse or bring anyone or anything in the multiverse to your world. Do you wish to Go or Bring?'

"I can leave this world?" X felt strongly tempted to leave. A whole different world was the perfect place to hide from Master Wily and Master Domino. They would never find him, and the curse might never activate.

'Yes. Which world would you like to enter?'

Oh wait... he had no idea where Zero was. It would be cruel to leave Zero here and not take him. And would he really want to leave? Zero was determined to find his father. If they left, not only would the Masters never find them, but Zero's father would never find them either.

"Um, I changed my mind. But the other worlds... what are they like?"

'The multiverse is filled with mirroring worlds. Some worlds move faster than others, some move much slower. There are thousands of worlds right next to you and you will never see them. For every decision you make, there is another world where you made a different decision. Some of these worlds die off quickly. Others have survived to eternity. Do you wish to Go or Bring?'

It was reading that passage that gave X a brilliant idea. He and Zero had to kill the Ice Dragon in order to live. But what if it was them, only not, because they were from another world? Would the magic accept that as reason enough to nullify a death curse? It might just work. "Bring."

"Which world are you bringing what from?"

"Um..." X spent what seemed like an hour instructing the World Portal Maker on what he wanted. He wanted older, stronger, heroic versions of himself and Zero. But it was very important that these older versions were nice and helpful, not mean or scary.

Finally, the machine and X came to an agreement on who to bring from where. 'According to the circumstances,' the mirror machine told him, 'you must bring them over willingly. Here are the calculations to cast this spell. WARNING: Any user of the World Portal Maker will NOT be able to remember the spell calculations for transport between worlds. Such spells are delicately targeted and can be easily messed up; therefore, only those approved by (block) are allowed to remember and tune this calculation. WARNING: Both worlds in this calculation are off-shoots of an original; as such, the quality of such places are subject to opinion.'

"Okay." X looked over the complex and precise calculation, making sure to get it exactly right. When he cast it, everything turned into a blur. He appeared and saw a mass of green leaves...

X woke up in a funky room.

* * *

January 4, XX55  
Maple Street School

"Hey Zero!"

Zero looked down from his perch on top of the monkey bars. It was Sheldon calling him. "What?"

"Come down here. We've got to talk to you."

We? It seemed Sheldon was alone. Zero jumped off the monkey bars and went over to the merry-go-round. Sitting on the still merry-go-round was Sigma, looking nervous. Zero watched him cautiously. "What?"

"We just want to talk," Sheldon said. "Come on, Sigma."

"Um..." Sigma scratched his chin. The guardian spirit could tell it was child Sigma in control.

Zero eased his stance. "Is something wrong?"

"I wanted to say I'm sorry to you and X," Sigma finally said. "But he gets so scared, so I thought you first..."

"Something terrible happened last summer," Sheldon spoke up, when Sigma stalled. "There were three stars of destiny that fell during the daytime. I dunno what happened to the other two, but the third fell here and hit Sigma in the head."

Three stars, like the three of them that crossed worlds. "That must have hurt."

"Not at first," Sigma said. "But then it turned out the star that hit me was the soul of an evil alien. He was horrible; he locked me up in my own mind and was planning on doing evil things. And he was gonna kill me, I know it."

Sheldon nodded. "I know you guys fought a lot, but it wasn't Sigma. That evil soul is nothing like Sigma. He hated everybody, but for some reason decided to pick on you guys a lot."

"So I'm sorry. I'm not like him; I've never picked on anybody before. I hope you understand."

"If it wasn't you, there's nothing to be sorry about," Zero said. "What happened to the evil soul? Did you beat him up?"

Sigma clutched a silver ankh hanging from his neck. "No... my human brother risked his life to save me. The evil soul hated humans, and he was gonna make me kill Roger! But Roger saved me, and then some priests gave me an exorcism. They sent that evil soul to hell."

Zero felt curious as to where the Sigma from the adult's world actually wound up. But if he was no longer here, that was good. "Great. It's fine by me, although you'll still want to tell X you won't be mean to him from now on."

Sigma smiled. "Sure."

And then he was hit by a snowball with a rock in it. "Traitor!" Dynamo yelled from the other side of the merry-go-round.

"Leave me alone," Sigma said, trying not to break into tears.

"Dynamo, get back inside," Ferham ordered.

"You can't make me," Dynamo taunted. He ran off, intending on breaking out of the schoolyard before the teacher could catch him.

Zero darted over and tripped Dynamo up. He was small and not powerful enough to knock him down. But the trip gave Sheldon enough time to get over and tackle the rogue kid to the ground. "Loser," Zero said quietly, so that the fearsome third grade teacher didn't hear.

"You're gonna get it someday," Dynamo hissed.

Ferham snatched him by his long white ponytail. "That enough out of you. I'll be glad to see you gone next week." Then she pulled him back inside, the child fighting every step of the way.

"Thanks," Sigma said, coming over to them. "Dad hasn't let me take fighting lessons yet."

So this version of Sigma was hardly a threat. Adult Zero found this very strange, but acceptable.

"He's just a bad kid," Sheldon said, looking at Dynamo struggling. "Did you hear? He's going to be sent to the Juvenile Correction School starting next Monday. Him and some others."

"Where's your brothers?" Zero asked. "I haven't seen Yammark back yet."

"They're gone," he replied. "My whole family's gone."

"Oh... that's too bad."

He chuckled. "No, it's great."

"How's that?"

"My dad won't let me take fighting lessons," Sigma said. "His dad has forced him into daily fighting lessons ever since he could walk."

"Yeah," Sheldon said. "Since my powers are mostly defensive, dad had my older brothers attack me all the time. They seemed to like it, but I found it horrible. Especially when Shark attacked me. Anchors are the scariest thing in the world."

"Anchors?"

"You ever had a gigantic anchor weighing a ton dropped onto your head? And his summon anchors bounce. I have no idea how they do that, but... it's so scary."

"I see. Just don't tell X that. He's probably already scared of anchors."

"Okay. Well, when Sir Cain heard about what was really going on, he put out a warrant for my dad's arrest, for child abuse. But then he took my brothers and left Monsteropolis. I have no idea where they are now. I'm living with the Cains now; it's so much better there."

"You think X will mind talking to me?" Sigma asked.

"Let me go talk to him first. I'll bring him over in a minute."

* * *

January 18, XX55  
Ikari Tower library

Every night, X and Zero came to the Tower to study dragons and how to defeat them. The children got used to working as dream spirits. Zero was always the first one to fade out into normal dreams, as the child got bored with non-fiction books quickly. X managed to stay long some nights. Others, like tonight, he faded off while thinking of something he'd read. The two adults figured out how to remain in the library as shadow beings while the children slept. In the morning, the four souls would compare notes.

Adult X was reading slowly tonight, a sign that he had picked up a difficult text, one that even through the child's knowledge of magic was hard to read. Zero noticed him stop for a moment to rub his eyes. "Falling asleep yourself?"

"Nah, I rest in the daytime. This is just... here, let me try this out on you."

"Okay. What is it?"

"Very technical; I need to figure out how to tell this. All right; Monsteropolis, and every other inhabited city here, has a shield to protect itself from the Ice Dragon and other threats. It must keep the threats out while allowing precipitation and sunlight into the city. This shield is powered by sixteen Aurora Translation... err, sixteen crystals that produce raw magic power from residual emotions."

Zero nodded. "Right, because magic power is directly related to emotional intensity. So these power crystals can pick up emotions that just anybody is feeling and turn that into magic?"

"Yes. And the Monsteropolis shield is intensified because they built the city walls into a pentagram. That's like using higher-conductive wire to increase power. According to my estimates... if the Monsteropolis shield were in our world, it would take the entire output of a nuclear power plant to maintain."

"Magic is that powerful?"

"Yes, and just as dangerous. There's a condition known as aural overflow which behaves like a nuclear meltdown. Only, if it doesn't kill you, it drives you insane."

"Huh."

"The point is, according to this book, a weather curse simply to affect one area the size of Monsteropolis would take nine power crystals to maintain, with an extra one for set up."

"And the Ice Dragon has this entire world cursed... how the hell are we supposed to fight something that powerful?" With that kind of power, she could match a space battle station easily, but was much smaller and more mobile. They were the most experienced of Maverick Hunters in their world, but even they hadn't come in a face to face battle with something like a space battle station.

X looked at the text again. "I know that sounds really bad, but think on it. She's only got a small percentage of her power to use, since she has to devote a large amount to maintaining winter. That is, assuming it took all of her power to curse the world. And yet that small percent is enough to produce monoliths of silver ice without effort."

Zero thought it over. "So what's the deal with sacrificing children? Does it take that to summon something as powerful as the Ice Dragon?"

"It does. See..." X paused to put his thoughts together. "The child and I now believe that the Ice Dragon is an alien to this world too. We know for certain Wily and Domino summoned the Ice Dragon and lost control. Using local children as sacrifices will make certain that the Fire Dragon is a native, and is easier to control. But I'm still missing something..."

"What?"

"According to this text, two children aren't enough. Three would be. And the spell crest says, 'bring the child of fear and the child of rage, with blood of innocence.' Although, X didn't know some of the runes. Are they just going to kidnap another child?"

Zero snapped his fingers. "Actually, Ballade has a son that will be a year old at the ceremony. His name is Equinox."

"And here I thought Master Wily couldn't get more evil... he's going to do that to Ballade?"

"Forte says that in his father's presence, he could be forced to do anything. It's probably the same with Ballade. And you know, I just thought of something. Ikari Domino shows up in our world too."

"He does?"

"Yes. He built Ikari Tower, where we came into this world."

"He did." X scratched his head. "And I've wondered myself why this world has so many aliens from so many worlds. There's us and Sigma from ours, the Ice Dragon from somewhere else, and Neko, Ciel, and them all from yet another world. What's with this world that draws so many others?"

"I'm not sure about that. But this is one of Master Wily's journals," Zero said, holding up his book. "In our world, no one had heard of Ikari Domino until he built that tree tower. In this world, he shows up out of nowhere, also with this tower, while claiming to be the Master's son."

"That's very strange."

"Ghosties," a small voice interrupted.

The two of them looked down to see that a child had joined them. He had lavender hair and amber eyes. Wondering, X touched the boy's hair. "This is Equinox?"

Recognizing him from the child's memories, Zero nodded. "That's him."

He smiled. "Hi ghosties."

"What are you doing here alone?" X asked, although he suspected that the child was too young to fully communicate.

"Equinox?" Ballade's voice called into the library.

Trisk hissed from his desk.

"Daddy!" Equinox called. He stayed leaning on X's chair.

Zero looked at X.

"Set the books down," X said. "Remember that we are shadows."

"There you are, you stupid brat." But although his words were hard, his voice was soft and caring. He certainly looked relieved as he picked his son up. "What devious business have you been up to?"

"Ghosties!" Equinox said excitedly, pointing to X and Zero. But Ballade didn't seem to see them.

Enker came in next. "Any plans? Hey there, little twerp."

Equinox giggled. Zero felt confused; X watched the Hunters closely.

"No plans," Ballade said. "We're running out of time."

"And they're running out of patience." Enker started to sit in the chair Zero was in.

"No!" Equinox called out. "No chair!"

He stopped. "What, is there some devil in that chair?"

"Ghostie."

"Punk gave him a book on ghosts last week," Ballade said. "He's been obsessed with them ever since. Keeps looking for ghosties everywhere."

Enker smiled a little; his silver eye sparkled. "Idiot." He tried the chair X was in. Equinox didn't let him sit there, but approved of two 'ghostless' chairs for Enker and Ballade to sit in.

"Should we go?" Zero whispered.

Enker tilted his head. "You say something?"

"No. You hearing things again?"

"Never mind. Forte is not going to come easily." He rubbed his forehead.

X and Zero decided to stick around for a bit.

Ballade fiddled with his son's hair. "I don't care what father says. Forte is a double-dealing bastard and he's damn good at it too. And what does he stand to gain for helping those two brats?" His silver eye sparkled bright for a second, then he shook his head.

"I mean, his son maybe," Enker's silver eye sparkled, "except that the kid's a traitorous bastard too for being friends with that devil child. Just like his father."

Zero glared at Enker, but X put his hand on top of Zero's. "These reploids are slaves," he whispered. "They must be punished for even thinking out of line."

His anger died off quickly. "That can be done?"

"Those eyes are like chains, I think."

Enker flinched, then looked at the two other chairs. "Ballade?"

"What?"

"I think your brat really is seeing ghosts."

Ballade didn't look at the chairs, but looked out of the corner of his normal eye at them. "Or shadows. Spirits of some sort."

"Ghosties!" Equinox said happily.

They started to leave, but then Enker summoned an Ouija board. "If you spirits are kind and would feel sympathy for even us, would you speak with us a while?"

Zero looked skeptical. X took the guide and moved it to 'Yes'.

"Definitely have something," Ballade said, trying to see the unseen hand of X.

"How many of you are there?"

X moved the guide to '2'.

"Who are you?"

X wasn't sure how to answer. Zero took the guide and spelled out, 'Strangers'.

"We meant your names," Ballade said.

"Don't push them if they don't want to reveal themselves. Do you understand our situation?"

X replied with, 'Maybe'.

Then Enker did something interesting. He put both of his hands on the guide and closed his eyes. "We are willing and loyal servants to our father and master," he said, but moved the guide to 'No'. "We will do everything he tells us to," he said with the guide over 'Yes'. "We do this because we love and respect him above all else," he said with the guide over 'No'.

"Can they really understand our complete loyalty to father?" Ballade asked.

Enker took his hands off the guide and opened his eyes. X spelled out 'Liar'.

His silver eye briefly sparkled. "Some lies are necessary."

X answered, 'Yes'.

Enker put his hands back on the guide and proceeded to lie some more. "We have a perplexing problem on our hands. Our eldest brother Forte has escaped his silver eye by a false death. He is a scoundrel for doing so and needs to be straightened out. He should be taught true loyalty. But he is as skilled as any of us and we seek advice on setting him straight. Our deadline to have him is three days; if we do not have him, father has threatened to have everyone search for him."

"Can we find Forte in three days?" X asked.

"Maybe if we found one of the wolves," Zero replied.

"I don't know if they have any ideas," Enker said.

"Could you locate our brother and warn him that he ought to turn himself in?" Ballade asked

"Otherwise, he will be severely punished."

"Otherwise?" Enker asked.

He shrugged. "More severely. He'll be punished anyhow for being a traitor. He's still a brother and I'd rather father not kill him."

"So would you find him?"

X moved the guide to 'Yes'.

"I'm not sure if there's anything we can do for you," Enker said. "But we'll try."

Hopeful, X carefully spelled out, 'Spare the children'.

Ballade looked like a deer caught in headlights. His silver eye had gone past sparkling into glowing. Opposite him, Enker saved himself by saying, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Equinox squirmed himself out of his father's lap. "Play." He moved the Ouija guide to 'J'.

Acting with sudden urgency, Enker folded the board. "Playtime is not now. I think your father needs a time out in the Quiet Room." He took Ballade by the hand and dragged him out of the library.

"Bye ghosties!" Equinox followed his uncle out.

"We should find the wolves, as soon as possible," Zero said.


	25. Two Steps Forward

January 19, XX55  
Maple Street

"You guys going to be all right going home?" Ash asked. He and Sandy had a Scout meeting.

"We'll be fine," X said. "My dad's picking us up today."

"Good. Well, see you."

At the bottom of the steps, Zero whispered, "But your dad isn't here."

X pointed down the street. "But yours is. Quick, go stop him."

Zero looked and spotted the cloaked figure, which could have been anybody. But if X said so, it was likely true. He summoned his broom and flew over as fast as he could. "Hey Dad," he called as he got to his side. "Hang on a bit."

Forte smiled at Zero, but seemed preoccupied. "Good afternoon. I'm sorry, but I have to be somewhere soon."

"But you have to hear this. X had one of his visions last night, and he says the Dark Hunters are going to capture you and bring you back to Master Wily to be enslaved. You can't let that happen!"

"He saw that?"

Zero nodded and got off his broom. "Yeah, and he saw how you can save yourself. Please do it."

Forte looked over at X, who had just come onto the block they were on. "I knew they were looking for me. But I don't have a choice. Once I come back into my father's presence, I will be lost forever."

"Then you have to free yourself before you see him. Tell him, X."

X stopped by them. "Okay. There's a glass ball in Ikari Tower that looks like a silver eye. It is the eye, like all of your siblings have, only it's yours. But it's not installed on you, so on your own, you're free to do as you wish. If you get to it and break it before either Master Wily or Master Domino finds you, you will be completely free. No one will ever be able to control you again."

"See? You can sneak into the Tower and get away before they find you. You can, right?"

Forte shook his head. "I knew of this already. But I can't enter Ikari Tower. I was forbidden to by my father."

"But you can," although Zero's tone indicated the child's faith was wavering.

"You have a chance to stop it, unlike your brothers," X said.

Forte's face had a practiced blankness to it. "I don't know if you understand. If Master Wily were to tell me to kill both of you right here and now, I would."

"No you wouldn't," Zero said.

"I don't stand a chance. You shouldn't have stopped me today. I was here to see you one last time. You'll never see me again, because that eye will kill what you know of me."

"Dad, we could be together again. You have to free yourself."

"Zero, you were always my treasure and I love you dearly. That why I have to tell you: never trust me again."

Zero was on the brink of tears, and infuriated. "You're terrible! I should have never trusted you. You were supposed to rescue us from the Tower and you never came. I hate you!" Then he ran off back home.

Forte watched him go. His shoulder sagged and he sighed. "I'm sorry, Zero."

Feeling awkward, X wasn't sure if he should run after Zero, or try to talk to Forte. "I hope he can forgive you."

"If he does, it will be for his sake, not mine. Could you take this for me? Give it to him when he calms down." He handed over a brightly colored cloth bag with a leather drawstring.

"What is it?"

"You can open it."

Inside was a tiny doll made of slivers of wood wrapped in red, orange, and yellow thread. "A doll?"

"His mother made that. It was supposed to bring us back together, but it never worked. She made two dolls of the same spool of thread; tell him if he finds the mate to that doll, he'll find his mother."

"She's still around?"

"She is."

X looked at the doll and wondered what went wrong with the enchanted object. Then again, maybe this was what went wrong. He looked up at Forte, who was miserable, but passively accepting the silver eye. That was completely wrong for him. The child wondered, and thought of the times the adult did something that seemed mean, but had actually been helpful. Could he manage the same thing? 'Will you help me?' he asked the adult.

'Try what you will.'

He was on his own. Mean... but in the end, probably helpful. He bit his tongue, then said, "He's right in hating you, you know." Then he started to walk toward home.

He took three steps, then heard, "X?" Forte had been completely stunned by that remark.

"What?" he asked, as if running out of patience.

"You usually aren't like this."

"That's because I used to admire you." He looked stunned. The child felt this was the right track and began to feel hopeful. But don't show it, he reminded himself. "But if you're not even going to try, it's not worth it. It will all go horribly wrong and Zero won't stand a chance."

Now he looked concerned. "What about Zero? What's going on?"

"It's no use for me to tell you, since you'll be gone by sundown."

"Sundown?"

"I sense monsters with silver eyes, very close. Almost watching. Once they see you and me talking, there is no chance. But now, when there is a chance, you aren't doing anything."

Forte was perplexed. "But I... there's nothing I can do."

The adult silently suggested looking him right in the eye, so X did so. "So long as you think that, you can't. But consider this: you killed my mother. Not that it matters much to me who did, because she would have killed me if I wasn't worth money to her. You told Zero you'd fight my father, but you led him to me. Besides, if you really had no choice, you would have never helped us back in Balna Forest."

"You are very clever; those things are true."

"See, you can try, and you ought to, for Zero's sake if not your own."

"You're right, I should..." Forte still looked doubtful.

X's third eye suddenly blinked. He recalled something from the Paranoid Mirror. Did that mean it would help Forte? X grabbed his hair, then made himself let go. "Um, I guess I should tell you something else."

"What is it? You said we can't be seen talking."

"I know, but you should hear... about the thing I fear most."

"Your strongest fear?"

He nodded. "It's... I'm afraid of Zero."

"But he's your friend."

"I know. I don't fear my friend, but I fear the other Zero. The one your father built."

Forte looked in the direction of the museum. "There's no threat from him. Unless, do you mean when he came to life a couple of months ago?"

"I know why he did. Master Domino captured the soul of the Fire Dragon Zero; well, not exactly. He exists as an unborn half soul. That's the one that possesses my friend now and drives his temper out of his control. I saw, in the Paranoid Mirror, how the Fire Dragon intends on burning everything it does not like."

Forte rubbed his chin. "I see. I understood it was a violent foreign soul making Zero lose his temper easily, but I didn't know it was that soul."

"You got one lock on him, but even before that, I put a seal on him. I was trying to get rid of him, but it didn't work out. And now that Zero hates me. If the Fire Dragon takes control, I will die by my best friend's hand. And there's not much we can do about that."

"You... know that for certain?"

"I can see it in his eyes. And I dream of it often. That's how you can fix things before they get worse. He's upset now and that empowers the Fire Dragon. But if you came back free, then he would be happy, and that would weaken the Fire Dragon."

As X had hoped for, knowing this weakened Forte's doubts and increased his resolve. "I'll do everything in my power to come back to Zero."

"Good. If for some reason you can't, I'll give this to him and let him know that you changed your mind."

"Thank you. You know, I was wrong about you."

X looked at him curiously. "How?"

"I thought you were a coward. But I also thought it was a curse of a thousand fears, not the Paranoid Mirror. If you can live a normal life after that and stay best friends with someone possessed by your greatest fear, you may be the bravest reploid on the planet."

X blushed. "I'm not normal by any means."

Forte hugged him. "Then let's just say you're worthy of your father's legacy."

"You'd better go. Zero needs a hug from you more than I do."

Forte smiled. "Yes. And I will see you both soon." He left for Ikari Tower and X left for home.

X got back and meant to go straight to Zero's room. But Roll was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "What's going on?" she asked. "Zero came back in tears and shut himself in his room. He won't say what's wrong and he won't let anyone in."

"It's kinda complicated. I don't know if I should tell you without him. I can handle it."

"I suppose. But come to me if you need..."

X looked at her when she cut off and noticed that she was staring at the doll's bag. "You're his mother?"

Roll got completely flustered. "What? But I..."

He leaned closer to speak quieter. "It is the truth. It's in your eyes, a secret you've carried for many years."

She put her hand on her forehead. "There is no hiding anything from you."

"I guess I understand. You like everybody, don't you?"

Roll took the bag and looked at it fondly. "So he is still alive. Why do you have this?"

The child was reluctant to tell her, thinking of Zero, but the adult insisted she deserved to know. "He's in some trouble, but I think he can get out of it. He's trying to free himself from his father's control, so he can be with Zero and not worry about betraying him again."

"I told him he had to do that. I'm glad he is." She sighed. "But there's nothing we can do about this, right?"

"Have faith in him. I'm pretty sure he'll succeed. I better go talk to Zero."

"Right. Oh, but what about Rock?"

X paused in going upstairs. "What about him?"

"It's a long story, but they've been trying to kill each other for decades. That's always been the worst part of this."

He recalled when Forte had saved him from Adanya. "I think that might resolve itself. We'll see."

* * *

Forbidden Mountains

There was no way Forte could teleport straight to Ikari Tower. Even his enslaved brothers needed special permission to do that. But he knew the fastest path from outside the shields and took that one using his field sled.

Gospel had come with him, puzzled. " _Why must we go so fast? We've left the pack far behind_."

" _This must be done. I don't have much time_."

" _No prey could require going this far this fast_."

Forte scratched his head. Wolfspeak wasn't helpful in this circumstance. " _It's not any prey, it's my other pup. He needs me and I need to rip my chains from my sire."_

" _Why that pup? He didn't recognize you and showed no respect today. You have others that will respect you_."

It really wasn't helpful. " _They're wolves. My true pup is different. He's hurt, so I must help him_."

" _You shouldn't bother_."

Forte growled and snapped his teeth to tell Gospel to knock it off. " _I can't ignore him_."

Gospel lay his ears back. He wasn't happy with this. " _We don't allow the weak to slow the pack."_

" _I am not a wolf, Gospel. If I must leave the pack, I will."_ Forte paused. It wasn't a good feeling to admit this. He had spent most of this cursed winter with only wolves for company. He'd been in the wilderness so long that being in civilization felt foreign. Perhaps that had been a mistake. "I will leave," he said in English.

His brother wolf was still being aggressive. " _You should not fight our sire_."

" _You know how he has treated me_ ," he growled back.

" _You're making a mistake, worse than those that came before."_

" _This is not a mistake."_

" _I should have punished you for your earlier mistakes; our sire will be terrible with you when he knows of this."_

" _Have you betrayed me?"_

" _I have betrayed no one, Forte. I was told to keep watch on you, even as you..."_

Gospel never got to finish. Forte snapped out a dagger and threw it right at his head. This wolf's spying explained many things. He took back his dagger and dumped Gospel's body out of the sled before it relayed position. The wolfoids were the same as wolves, only possessing animal instincts. Once he admitted to being a spy, he could never be trusted again.

Forte got back to control the sled, but found his hands were shaking. He let it run on auto for a while, watching the snowy mountains go by. He had trusted Gospel enough to tell him everything that could be told in Wolfspeak. If Master Wily knew all that Gospel knew... Forte wondered how he had survived so long.

There could be no going back now. He thought of his wolfoid children, the ones he had built based off of Gospel. They had been everything to him for many years, until he took a chance on reviving Zero. But now they would turn from him too. They weren't loyal to Wily, but they were loyal to the pack. One member killing another was a terrible offense.

But Forte wasn't a wolf.

* * *

January 19  
Ikari Tower

Forte arrived in a cave that disguised a man-made tunnel. He parked his sled near a few others and went to the door. It was thick, made of heavy iron, and decorated with many shield runes. His power core was running nervous. In his mind, he recalled being ordered to never come here until called.

Doubts came back about doing this. X supposedly had a third eye, and sometimes he did see things. Then again, he recalled when Zero thought he was actually an adult and wondered if X simply suffered an overactive imagination. Zero believed in everything X told him, so perhaps this was another one of their unrealistic hopes. Besides, X might even be siding with his father and telling Forte to do foolish things in order to get rid of him.

It was almost enough to turn him back, but then he thought of Zero. Forte thought he was doing the right thing in avoiding his son today, and thought he was doing the right thing in warning him away. He hadn't counted on his optimism and hopes; Forte definitely hadn't expected his son to be completely devastated. There had been a moment where he thought of running after Zero and trying to comfort him. He even considered lying in order to get him to stop crying. He hadn't lied, which was good, but he hadn't gone after him, which was worse. Forte was trying to protect Zero and wound up breaking both their hearts.

Forte put his hand on the door's handle. Part of his mind still expected to be stricken with pain at disobeying his father. But Master Wily was no father, and if I expect to be one,

He opened the door.

Once inside, his anxiety lessened. X was right; he was just so used to following orders to avoid punishment that he didn't notice he could disobey. Master Wily had taught Forte to be an excellent thief and assassin, and now Forte was using those skills against him. He needed every single skill and experience he had here.

The most visible part of Ikari Tower was the upper 'tree'. But the trunk carried only energy and shield generators. Most of the rooms were actually below ground, in the roots that extended as far down as the branches reached above. The lower halls sprawled everywhere in organic formations. It was obviously not Master Wily's work, but a perfect example of Master Domino's skills. There were rumors that Ikari was Albert's son. Forte had no idea whether that was true or not. He just knew he could not run into either human or this game would be lost.

Forte paused in a crossway where four halls intersected. If this was his father's place, he would know exactly where to begin his search. He began to feel nervous again. This place had hundreds of rooms, maybe thousands. Forte had only been here a few times, only knew where a few key areas were. And he couldn't ask for help. All of his brothers were enslaved, and they would know their oldest brother. Well, oldest in terms of being a reploid...

He heard someone coming, so Forte leapt up to a crevice to hide. Half hoping it was a Core Demon, he observed the guard. If it was a Core Demon, he could command it to help him. That is, he might be able to. The Yellow Demons were hard to control, and the Red ones wouldn't listen until you proved yourself stronger.

It was a mountain ogre. A clean smelling one at that. Forte frowned. If an ogre smelled clean, it was probably in a bad mood from taking a bath. He waited. The ogre stopped to slowly examine each hall. Above it, Forte gripped one of his daggers. He felt like killing it to move on quickly. The longer he took, the more time he gave his enslaved brothers to find him.

Something wasn't right. Forte rubbed his forehead. He was never nervous when infiltrating. Slightly cautious, just to avoid cockiness and stupid mistakes, but never nervous. What was wrong with him? Had it been so long since he did this? Or was it because he'd never infiltrated one of Ikari's fortresses before?

The ogre was taking way too long. Forte glanced around himself, then noticed something. When he looked down the second hall to his right, he felt especially nervous. Afraid, even. He did not want to go down that hall. In fact, looking down that hall made him want to leave again.

The silver eye is connected to me, he thought. It wants to keep me away, so it makes me nervous when I'm going towards it on my own. So I need to go the way that causes me the most fear.

Finally, the ogre moved on, down one of the left halls. Forte looked down the second hall to his right. This would be akin to torture. For a moment, he wasn't sure he could manage.

Now's the time to think of X, he told himself. If he had looked into the Paranoid Mirror, that child had to live with this level of fear every hour of every day. He had occasional breakdowns and lapses of reason, but managed to go to school and succeed. Forte had to get him out of a tree when he was terrified once, but X managed to get through Shadow Palace and fought off a strange alien creature. And while he had visions of his best friend being overcome by a monstrous mockery, X stayed friends with Zero in hopes of helping him.

If X can live with that, I can certainly endure this. Forte dropped out of the crevice, landed silently, and crept down the feared hall.

He entered an elevator. The silver eye tried to make him not chose level 23. He went to level 23. The silver eye increased its emotional assault as Forte got closer. He used that to find his way through the serpentine passages. Finally, he came to a door that made his quiver and threatened to make him scream. That was it. This was the room his silver eye was in. The door was unlocked and had a simple knob. It took Forte fifteen minutes to stop his shaking hands and enter the room.

Lying unprotected on a metal table, the silver eye looked at Forte and stopped him in his tracks.

It's not a part of me yet, he reminded himself. He approached it slowly. It was all silver and wasn't active, but he knew it was watching in another way.

A voice echoed from far down the hall. "You haven't found him yet?" It was Ikari. Forte had only met him a few times, but he couldn't forget that snakelike silky voice.

You will obey, the silver eye told him in Ikari's voice. It melted his mind and threatened to overtake it once the master came closer. But an image remained strong in his mind. Not of Zero running away, but of Zero being ill. Forte had done that to him reluctantly. A reploid's personality attempted to remain static to sudden change, so the only way to defuse an unnatural temper for certain was to use a virus' ability to bypass security. And then X had told him only hours ago that it may not be enough.

He had to act, or the risky venture with Pandema would be for nothing. Forte activated his dagger and rushed for the silver eye. It broke, almost sounding like a bell being shattered.

All of Master Wily's orders were undone. His mind became chaotic, some memories demanding attention while what enslavement programming was in his mind got completely undone. But the sound of running footsteps was more dangerous. Master Domino would know that Forte was now free.

He was tempted for a moment to kill Ikari. But he knew the tricks and knew a rash murder would not stop him. Forte managed a teleport spell to his sled. It set off alarms, but he was ready to go. His plan was to go straight back to Monsteropolis, but he got stopped on the way out of the cave. Eight wolfoids were out there, his other children.

He was in a hurry, but reluctant to do anything to them. " _I know what I did. I'm leaving the pack_."

The oldest, Diamond, came up to the sled's side. " _You were never a wolf, my sire."_

" _Diamond?"_

" _It was Pearl."_

She came up, her tail swishing. " _I saw his last minutes when I was trying to catch up to you. I understand. We cannot suffer as your true pup must be suffering. You are leaving the pack to join your own kind."_

" _But you will always be friend to the wolves,"_ Emerald added.

He nodded. " _Thank you, my pups. I must hurry. May your trails be fruitful."_

" _Yours as well."_

" _Hurry on,"_ Diamond said. " _We will distract them."_

" _Do not harm yourselves."_ Then he took off for beyond the shields. His wolfoid children ran all over the mountains to leave conflicting trails.

* * *

January 20  
Light residence

It was a quiet Saturday. In various rooms, the adults were busy with their own activities. X and Zero played Chinese Checkers downstairs, not saying much. Zero nervously watched the door and tapped the table restlessly. When the door finally knocked, he jumped out of his chair and ran for it. Star Guise, who was watching them this morning, followed them over.

It was Forte, wearing his hood down today so that it was obvious that he still had two normal eyes. "I'm sorry about yesterday."

Zero hugged him and was picked up. "You're okay! That's great!"

Star looked puzzled. "Do I know you?"

Forte nodded. "It's been some time, Star. I hope the shadows have eased up on you."

"Oh, right, you're the crazy old reploid from Balna Forest." Then he turned pink. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

He chuckled in response. "That's fine, I know what was said in Kykital."

"Too bad you missed out on seeing Neko again. He's off on some personal journey."

"I see."

"So what are you doing here?"

Forte ruffled Zero's hair. "I'm here for my son, now that I'm a free reploid."

"Your son?" The room got tense. Rock had walked in, unnoticed by the others. He studied Forte. Forte shifted to a position that was protective of Zero. Star was puzzled again. X watched Rock, hoping this would go as he thought.

Forte nodded slowly. "You have taken care of my son. I thank you for that."

Rock nodded back. "You have saved my son. I thank you for that as well."

Zero grinned. "Can he stay with me?"

"So long as no one else objects, I suppose it would be okay," Rock said. "Although, I guess once we hear how he got here, I think everyone would welcome him in."

Forte smiled gratefully. "I'll try not to be trouble."

* * *

Forte and Star talked to each other most of that evening. Star apparently knew him under his pseudonym Eldritch and was least bothered by his presence in the house. Roll was kind as she was with everyone, but X noticed she was anxious and uncertain how to greet him.

She got X to help her clean up after supper. Once they were alone, she asked, "Did you tell him?"

X squinted at her. "Huh?"

"Did you tell Zero about me?"

He shook his head. "No. It should be you that tells him."

"I know I should." She rubbed her forehead, getting soap bubbles in her hair. "Oh, what am I supposed to do now? I'm glad he's free, but... I mean, I know Rock has accepted him as Zero's father, but what if he finds out about me?"

X shrugged. "I dunno. I can see present and past truth, but the future is a tricky thing."

"I have to think about this. Would you stay quiet about this?"

He nodded. "I will. But you should tell Zero. It doesn't take an oracle to see that he deserves to know about his mother."

"I know. But I don't want anyone fighting because of me."

* * *

January 24, XX55  
Light residence

Roll kneaded the bread dough on the counter. Tonight would be a large dinner, with some of the inn guests and workers. It should be a lively night, but also a nervous one. For one reason or another, Forte had decided to join them. Normally he kept to himself or only met with Zero. Maybe he was trying to prove to Rock that he meant no harm. She hoped they got along.

Someone sat across the counter from her. She looked up to see Forte smiling at her. "Hello, beautiful."

She smiled back. "Oh you. I thought you were checking the plumbing."

"I did. Here's what I found: a few pipes need replacing and a valve needs to be corrected or replaced."

She glanced over the list. "Probably should just replace them all."

"And did you expect me to stay away from you? We've been apart for far too long. I missed you so much. I missed your smile, your kisses, your songs. And your baking. Especially your baking."

Roll cracked up laughing.

"I don't know how many times I woke up alone and thought, geez, I really wish I had one of her lemon poppy seed muffins. Or that Pumpernickel Surprise; I loved that one."

"Is that why you're coming to dinner tonight?"

He looked off in mock innocence. "Maybe."

"Well, it's your fault we've been apart," she said, equally mocking, although she did feel that way sometimes. "Making me think you were dead and then running off with our secret child and not telling me. And how did you find him, anyhow?"

"I know you. I knew how to find Adrian."

Roll paused in her bread preparation to look at him. She only mentioned that name to Forte once. "You remembered that?"

"I named him as you wished, but Master Wily changed his name on me."

"So he is still alive."

He put his hands together and rest his chin on them. "I'm not sure alive is the best term. He is still around, but he depends on machinery for everything. There's little of his body left. Last I saw of him was when they took Adrian from me. I was told to keep away and forget about it, but my memories managed to hang on. That, and the pictures I had of me and our child."

She set the dough aside and put a damp towel over it to rise again. "So what was Zero like then?"

"It might surprise you, but he was a quiet infant. Of course, I kept him close so that he never needed to be loud to get my attention. And he was quite fearless; I think if I had kept him longer, past the point he was walking, it would have been hard to keep him out of innocent trouble. I thought you had opened my eyes, but he showed me how wonderful everything could be. "

"Babies will do that to you."

"But when I lost him, that was like losing everything. I felt I had betrayed both of you." He hid his face in his hands a moment. "It made me wish I had kidnapped you as well and left the city."

"You were going to kidnap me again?"

He put his hands down and smiled weakly. "That was a possibility. I thought maybe I could grab you, put him back in your mind, and then we could run off to another city to be married. That had always been a possibility once he came into the picture. But, well, I wasn't sure I wanted to risk your brothers coming after us again. Especially with what they did back then trying to rescue you."

Roll nodded. "That's always been the problem, right?"

Forte leaned over the counter. "Hey, if I had woken you up that night, would you have come elope with me?"

She leaned closer. "The kids will be home soon."

"They're not here now."

"I would have. I might have thought of a way to keep them from looking for me."

"So it might have worked." Then he smiled slyly. "So what about now? Want to run off to another city to get married?"

She giggled. "Forte! Not now!"

He chuckled. "And why not?"

"I can't run out on X. At this point, it's impossible for him to have a mother, so I have to make up for it as his aunt. Besides, do you really want to separate him and Zero? They would hate us for that."

He shrugged. "It was a thought. But you're right."

The door opened and shut noisily as the boys got home. X came into the kitchen. "Hey Roll, Daisy wants to talk to you about babysitting Iris this weekend. Sandy has an induction seminar he has to be at."

"Sure, I'll talk with her later."

"Okay. I have to work on an essay." Then he looked right at Forte. "And no flirting with her unless you're going to help with supper." X left the room.

Forte looked out the door. "Okay... if he says so."

Roll smiled and shook her head. "You can't hide anything from X. Well, you heard him. Start cleaning and peeling those potatoes."

"All right, dear." He came around the counter and gave her a quick kiss. "Does that mean I can flirt with you?"

"Not with the kids around." She winked at him.

He might have continued, but Zero came back downstairs and into the kitchen. "Roll, there you are. Where's X?"

"Up in his room. He's working on an essay and probably doesn't want to be disturbed."

He got up on one of the counter seats. "Good, cause something really important's going to happen in two weeks."

'Really important, huh?"

"Yeah. X turns four on February seventh."

"That is important. We'll have to plan a special party."

"It has to be really special," Zero insisted. "He always gave me something for my birthday, but he could magic up a treat from bread and fruit. He never did anything for his own birthday, and the only time I ever gave him as a birthday gift was last year. I gave him an apple and a tub of peanut butter that he didn't have to share. So he deserves something really great this year."

Roll nodded and got out a piece of paper to make notes on. "We can invite your friends from school to come over, and you can help me bake a cake if you like. I don't think there's anything planned for the seventh, so I'll have to lock that date."

"How are we going to manage this party?" Forte asked. "I'm guessing X will tell us not to make a fuss over his birthday, and there's no way we can surprise a young oracle."

"He mostly sees visions he can use to help other people and to see past truths," Zero said. "If we're careful, we might be able to surprise him."

* * *

February 7, XX55  
Maple Street School

The eighth grade classroom was quiet. Those who would be ten by September first were now away every Tuesday and Thursday for their induction class. That left just X and Hyper. Signas let them study however they wished those days; he was reading a novel at his desk. X was reading a hefty manual on reploid physiology. It wasn't part of the STERE to know how a reploid was formed, but X was curious and Signas had told him to pursue whatever he wished to study.

Hyper spent these days pacing while reading. She had an attention disorder that would not allow her to sit still for more than ten minutes. But her father had come up with a plan to let her stay in school and pay attention. Every day, she brought a craft kit full of beads. Whenever there a lecture, a film, or anything requiring sitting still, Hyper would bead under her desk. The teachers here understood that this was the reason why she was excelling in school, so they let her. But since most everyone was gone, she preferred studying while pacing.

In the last fifteen minutes of school, she put her book down at their table. "Hey X? Can I ask you something?"

He looked up from the engineering manual. "Sure, what?"

"Well you're smart with magic, so I figured you'd know. Do you think I can make magic artifacts with my beads? Cause my parents are trying to make me decide on something to do, and I like jewelry making, so can I do that?"

He thought about it. "You could do that with your beads. Although I'm not sure you can do that in class. It probably requires taking plain beads, putting runes on them, enchanting it with power words, precise crafting, and maybe some other things. My dad says earrings are most powerful, so you'd want to keep that in mind."

"Okay, that sounds neat. Maybe I'll look stuff up in the library."

"I'm not sure your craft beads could produce anything powerful," Signas said from his desk. "It's probably a good starting point, but in order to learn other things, you'll have to join an art class or metal shop with the humans."

"That would be awesome. I'm an Elf ring mage, if that helps."

" _The Elf ring is very good at enchanting items,"_ X said, in the bell-like Elf tongue.

Hyper laughed, then responded in the same, " _But it's a bummer that there isn't a major elf community here. Where did you learn to speak Elf?"_

" _From a dragon. You probably got it naturally from your magic."_

" _Yeah, and my parents both have elves. I hope they'll take me to Lunesk or somewhere this summer where there's lots of elves."_

"What are you two talking about?" Signas asked.

Both of them laughed this time. "Just stuff," Hyper said.

Signas shrugged. "Next week, I'll get you two some information on protection bracelets. I know those can be beaded by beginners, so you can start experimenting. If you want, we can even go over to the gym for live magic testing."

"That's neat." Hyper looked at X. "So what are you gonna do for a career?"

"I don't know. But I'm only four, so I have a while before I have to decide."

"You might want to think on it anyways," Signas said. "Given how high your first score was and how you've progressed, I wouldn't be surprised if you aced STERE this May."

"It's not a hard test," X said.

"If you think that, then you will beat it," Hyper said. "Everyone else around here dreads STERE week."

"If you say so. I have been thinking about studying healing magic. That's partly why I got this book; if I know how the reploid body works, my magic will work better at healing."

"That would be a good use of your talents," Signas said.

The school bell buzzed.

Signas put his novel away. "So I'll be seeing you both tomorrow. Have a good day. You especially, X. Happy birthday."

X smiled shyly. "Thanks."

Hyper grinned. "Hey, it's your fourth birthday? That's great! Here, you can have the bracelet I made today. It's a pretty one."

He took the bracelet made of painted wood beads and slipped it on. "Thank you. But when did you make this? You were pacing all day."

"You were so into that doorstop book that you weren't paying attention. Have a great birthday!" Hyper skipped off downstairs.

Rock met with X and Zero today. "Where did you get that bracelet?" he asked.

"Hyper Mayden gave it to me," X said, turning it around his wrist. "She made it today and gave it to me when she heard it was my birthday."

"Oh no, I forgot about your birthday," Zero said, upset. "I'm really sorry, I just..."

"It's okay, it's not that important. There's been so much else going on that it slipped my mind too."

"But it is important, since it's your birthday."

Rock nodded. "Yeah. Don't worry; I'll talk to Roll when we get home and we'll get a great party for you this weekend."

"You don't have to make a big fuss about it."

"I'll make a big fuss out of it, no matter what you say," Zero said, with a mischievous grin.

X laughed. "If that's so, I might go hide somewhere with a book all weekend."

Something else crossed Zero's mind. "Oh, right, Rock, can we go by the library? I've got a science project I have to look stuff up for."

"Sure, if you need to. Let me call Roll up and let her know we're going."

"What kind of science project are you doing?" X was curious. The first grade class couldn't be doing anything complicated and normally Zero hated researching. Every night, he stayed with the shadow adults long enough to get them to Ikari Tower's library, but then went into his own dreams.

"It's kinda neat, but I don't get it. We have to build a terrarium; it's this really nifty jar with plants growing in it, but it's shut tight. You can't water it or anything, so I don't know how the plants live in it."

"That's cause there's water in it when you seal it up," X explained. "That waters the plants."

"But doesn't the plant drink all the water?"

"Plants let water vapor out. I can help you find some books on it."

"Okay, we're ready to go," Rock said. "We can't take long, but hopefully we can find your books."

They wound up at the library for an hour, discussing five books X found in the children's section on building your own terrariums. Zero eventually found a favorite. "Hey, look at this X. It says to take a piece of bread and put some milk and sugar on it. Leave it out overnight, then seal it up in the terrarium. All sorts of weird mold and fungus will grown on it."

X looked at the picture. "Eww, that's awesome. I wonder if that's penicillin."

"That doesn't sound too hard."

"I don't know how Roll will feel about you putting bread on the counter overnight," Rock said. "You never know if a guest might come down for a snack."

"Oh, then we'll just put a sign by the bread saying, 'Dangerous science project: do not eat'."

"They'll think you're growing poison," X pointed out.

"But they won't eat it."

"I think we'd better head back," Rock said. "Let's check out your books."

They took two of the terrarium books, and X rechecked out the reploid manual so he could keep it an extra two weeks. Then they headed back home. The boys discussed the science project, mostly on the gross-out qualities of mold and betting how long Roll would let Zero keep his terrarium.

Roll actually met them at the door. But before they could ask about growing moldy bread, she asked them, "Could you three come over here for a bit? I have something to talk to you about."

"Okay," Rock said.

They went into the great room and found over a dozen people there who began singing 'Happy Birthday' to X. He felt startled, but then saw Zero's grin. "Were you tricking me?" he whispered.

"It was a good trick," Zero replied. "You didn't really think I would forget, did you?"

It was a great party. X got several nice things, like a card keeper from Ash and a new book on mystic runes from Zero. But the nicest gift had to be the one Rock gave him. It was a mage's robe that was similar to Rock's wizard robes. Like his father's robes, his were white with silver runes; the exact same runes, X was pleased to note. This day had seemed ordinary, but had turned out to be wonderful.


	26. Three Steps Back

February 12, XX55  
Maple Street School

The induction class was starting late today, so Signas opened up discussion on magic craft and environment. X found it dreadfully boring. He'd known about environmental effects on magic for half his life now and it had seemed obvious when he'd first read about it. But to his classmates, it seemed a new view on magic.

He tried to look like he was paying attention, but his mind drifted. He thought of this morning. Zero had brought him into the first grade classroom to show off his five gold stars for good behavior and study. He'd only gotten three gold stars the entirety of last semester, so having five already for this semester was exciting to him. The adult Zero even seemed encouraged by this sign.

Ever since they had found the Dream Mirror, the adults had been spending most of the day resting and all night studying. Or practicing fighting as shadows. Child X had been interrupted from a rather peaceful dream of sunlight by his friend to watch the two adults mock fighting each other. He had indeed found powerful adult versions of themselves, although their magic skills were lacking. The adult version of Zero so far couldn't grasp anything beyond summoning a blade of shadows. His adult version was doing better, but mostly by borrowing information from him.

And could they really fight as shadows? A disturbing thought had occurred to child X. He had yet to share it, although he kept thinking he should. There was a Shadow Master in what Xenophon called Copy X. The Shadow Master could command all shadows, regardless of origin. They had been lucky so far in passing through the Palace without drawing the attention of the Master. But if Copy X noticed them, could he turn the adults against the children? It was a horrifying scenario; child X was tempted to suggest they never enter the Palace again.

He heard a tapping that reminded him he was supposed to be listening to a lecture. X looked up at the blackboard. Signas was showing a map of Monsteropolis and speaking of how mystical forces were greatly enhanced due to the shape and layout of the city. He was tapping the blackboard, where the map was projected, but that wasn't the tap that he heard. That tap came from the window.

There was a demon hovering by the window. It had rust mottled skin and sickly yellow eyes. It had thin but powerful wings that beat so fast, X could only see a blur. But he shouldn't be seeing this demon, a virka, at all. For on its forehead, it had tattooed a complex rune of stealth. He shivered.

But everyone around him was paying attention to Signas. None of them noticed the virka or its window tapping. It flicked out its split tongue. " _Child seer,"_ X heard, not aloud, but in his head. " _May I come in to play?"_

" _No,"_ X spoke telepathically.

Scowling, the virka withdrew its claws and ran them down the glass. The resulting sound was horrendous, making X cringe. But no one else seemed to notice the noise, or him reacting to it.

He could have panicked and had a nervous breakdown right there. But with Signas, Ash, Sandy, Hyper, and Carol all there, he didn't want to. The adult's soul wasn't awake enough to help the child deal with it, so he was on his own. X bit his lip and tried to think with that terrible screeching claw-against-glass sound filling his ears. He could do something. Right?

There was a chant he learned from a book well over a year ago. It was used by monks caught alone by demons and reportedly was effective in annoying the demons enough to drive them away. X looked at his desk and began silently mouthing the chant.

He got through it three times and the virka became annoyed. It thumped its hands on the window, rattling it enough so that the others in the classroom heard. But it could not force entry into a place it had not been invited.

Signas paused in his discussion. "Gust of wind," he shrugged it off as. Then he seemed to notice that the classroom's aura had changed significantly. He stared out the window for a moment, then looked right at X. "What are you doing, X?"

Carol snickered, but then had to suppress it under the teacher's gaze.

"There's dangerous things you can't see," X said, nervously. "I see a virka."

"What's a virka?" Ash asked.

Signas looked back out the window. "Winged demon, usually travels in packs of two or three. Dangerous to confront when unprepared. However... I sense something off, but I don't sense signs of virka."

"The one outside the window has a stealth rune," X pointed out.

It growled at him. " _You won't be believed. Let me in and prove the unseen is real."_

_No_ , X silently replied again.

" _Fine, be stubborn. I'll just find some dim-witted adult to let me in."_ It flew away from the classroom window _._

"It wants to come in and might hurt anybody going outside. We should cancel recess until someone can send it away."

His classmates looked annoyed with him now.

X shrank back in his seat. He wished he could talk to the adult, even just for confirmation that he had seen the virka. There was a chance it was just the fear curse. But then, how did one explain the dark aura that had settled around the school except for a demon?

"It's nothing to worry about, probably," Signas said. "We'll discuss this later."

No, the demon really was out there. And it wouldn't care about who got hurt, just that it completed its goal. Perhaps Master Wily had sent it after him and Zero. X knew someone had to do something about it soon. But if he continued discussing it, he would just irritate everyone else further. So he made a decision and bolted from the room.

Signas was startled for a moment, then ran to the hall. "X, come back!" But he was already gone.

The other eighth graders looked at each other, puzzled. No one had ever seen X do something so bizarre and impulsive. Normally, he was reluctant to start things. What was different about today?

* * *

Signas searched for X over recess. He'd been afraid of something like this happening. Early on in his Snow Patrol career, he'd been stationed at Fort Balna by Balna Forest. The fort held many guards to protect caravans going through the forest between Redwin and Kykital. One thing they saw a lot of was victims of Shadow Palace.

Balna Forest was notorious as a shadow gateway. There was always an open gate somewhere in the forest to the Palace. Even the trained guards at Fort Balna and Kykital stumbled into these gates. They would come out hours, or weeks, or even years after they went in. After they settled down, some stayed at the fort to continue work. They seemed like normal people, until their first flashback. Signas knew some promising young patrolmen who had to be locked up in asylums because the flashbacks were too much to handle. The sudden burst of irrationality out of a brilliant young child was mostly likely the sign of a nasty flashback.

Signas located a cold breeze coming from the fifth floor, which contained only school offices. Following that led him to X on a balcony. The scene was a puzzle. X was kneeling on the ledge of the balcony, looking down. Signas knew for a fact that the boy was terrified of heights. There were runes on the balcony wall, written into an exact spell to banish a virka from a particular area. It was the sort of spell he'd expect from a sorcerer or a white wizard, not a novice at magic.

Then again, X was a prodigy in magic as he was in intelligence. Signas had spotted him healing minor cuts and bruises on other students. X had a knack for telekinesis and had reportedly cast Angel Guard against a monster. Signas hadn't been sure what to think of it then, but when he saw X cast Kyrie at the museum, he believed it.

Not wanting to startle him, Signas tapped the open door. "X, come down from there."

X looked back at him, nervous. His green eyes had a faint glow of White magic. "Um, yeah." He slid off the ledge. "Sorry about running out, but it was an emergency."

"Come back inside; we'll move to a warmer spot to speak."

"Okay." Signas shut the door and X followed him to an empty conference room. "I don't believe it; that worked. I did it."

They sat in two padded chairs. "What did you do?"

X smiled slightly, but began twisting his hair. "I drove the virka away. I was so scared, I didn't know if I could do anything. But I had to do something or somebody would get hurt. I found some chalk and wrote the spell for Banning of Hate. It didn't notice me until I only had to activate it, and then it was too late. But it was still scary. I could hear its wings buzzing."

Banning of Hate was the proper spell name. "You know demonic revoking?"

He nodded. "That's the chant I was using at first."

"Where did you learn about revoking? They usually take years of study."

"They do? I just read a lot of books on demonology, especially on keeping them away. And that wasn't the first time I had to use Banning of Hate." He shivered. "The Tower had some nasty monsters, although the worst were the people living there."

Signas thought for a moment. He knew what Shadow Palace victims were like, but in this calmer state, it was hard to know for certain. What did the healers ask to make sure? "You did quite well in your casting. But are you sure that was a single stealth virka? I've never seen any stealth virka before."

"I have. They're usually trained and marked by evil wizards. I have a third eye, so I can always see them."

"You can?"

X brought his hand, still hanging onto his hair, to his cheek. Then he looked up at his teacher. "There's monsters everywhere that normal people like you can't see. Everywhere. But they reserve their nastiest tricks for those who can see them, like me. And about monsters you can't see... can you tell me about the Ice Dragon?"

"Why do you want to know about the Ice Dragon?"

"I have to kill her sometime in the next five weeks."

This was more like the delusional behaviors of the Palace victims. "Are you sure you want to do that? I've trained for years to beat her, and your father has trained much longer, and we still can't do anything against her."

"It's important. You remember when Zero Wily came to life that time."

Signas nodded, glancing down at his ice-free leg. How could he forget something like that?

"He wasn't interested in the rest of you. He wanted me and Zero. If we die, then he returns to his original form as the Fire Dragon."

"Fire Dragon?"

X nodded. "To curse the world with eternal summer. That is, if he beats the Ice Dragon. But if Zero and I kill the Ice Dragon first, the Fire Dragon won't get summoned. So I have to know everything I can. My dad can't tell me about it because of his curse, but you trained specifically to fight her for a long time, so I felt you would be the best source. I mean, they've done all they can to help, but we're..." he became tense, as if he slipped something he didn't mean to.

"Who are you talking about, 'they'?"

"Um..." he bit his lip and looked at the ground. Then he looked back up. "I'm not lying and I'm not crazy, okay? I have another soul living with me. So does Zero. They're very brave, and kind, and powerful, but we're having trouble solving the Ice Dragon puzzle. I mean, they could leave at any time; we think we know how. But they're staying to help us, even though, if we die... something terrible could happen to them."

This was a puzzle to Signas. X absolutely believed that he was telling the truth about living with another soul. But he didn't sense another soul within the child's body. A willing cooperation between two souls sharing a body didn't seem right. Possessions where one soul fought another for control of one body made sense because he had seen it. But cooperative possessions?

Trying to unravel this, Signas asked, "When did the other soul come into your body?"

"Back in Shadow Palace," X replied, still believing his own words. "I called them with a magic device I found there. I was really desperate at that point. But now our deadline is close. It scares me, and I have to know. We have to stop this evil plot trapping us."

He might not be suffering an active flashback anymore, but he was losing touch with reality. It concerned Signas a lot. X didn't deserve to go through any of this mess. But if his sense of reality was warped, and he was intelligent, and he was powerful with magic, X was a danger to other students and himself. It still made him feel bad to be the one doing this.

Signas put his hand on X's shoulder. "I'll talk to you about it later. But for now, you should probably see the counselor about the virka you saw."

X swung his feet. "I guess so. But don't tell anyone else about the alien soul in my body. I'm not crazy, even though I know it sounds that way."

I wish I could be so certain, Signas thought.

* * *

At recess, Zero got into a game of Battlefield cards and didn't notice X wasn't there. But at lunch, he didn't miss that the eighth graders came in late and X wasn't with them. "Where's X?" he asked the older boys.

"He's talking with the counselor," Ash said. "He kinda freaked out in class. Dunno why."

Sandy added, "Sir Signas said it wasn't something to worry about, so I guess he's okay."

Zero though. "I dunno why he would run off in the middle of class. He loves school."

"Maybe he's just stressed out. I noticed he wasn't paying attention to the lecture, just thinking about other things."

"But what is worrying him?" Ash asked. "Is it just something we don't know about?"

"He said he was going to ask Signas about a report this morning," Zero suggested. Although really, it was the Ice Dragon problem that was causing his stress. Zero definitely worried about it every day.

"That report's a pain," Sandy agreed.

Ash shrugged. "But X is a genius. How could he be worried about that report? I mean, yeah, it's a pain in the neck, but he should manage it. He's gotten A's on all his other essays."

"You know how he is with these big projects. He'll be panicking over it one day, then the next day it's all figured out and no problem at all. He'll be better tomorrow."

* * *

Normally X met with Zero after school on the first floor. This time, Zero went up to the eighth grade room. But the only person inside was Signas. He knocked on the open door. "Sir Signas?"

"Hmm?" He looked up from his papers. "Good afternoon, Zero. What is it?"

He came in. "Where's X? I heard he went to the counselor's office, but he should be all right now, right?"

Signas put his hand on his chin, thinking. "It was worrisome. He ran out of class, something about demons no one else could see."

"X has a really sensitive third eye. He even found a path once by following the planet's memories and trace emotions."

The teacher put his hand down. Whatever had happened, he was still thinking and worrying about it. That couldn't be good, Zero thought with an uneasy knot in his stomach.

Signas mused, "It must be frightening, living with ghosts, trace emotions, and hidden monsters in plain sight, when no one else notices them."

Zero put his hands on the desk. "Where is X now? Is he okay?"

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but we had to send him to a psychologist with his father's permission. We had to make sure he was okay." He sounded genuinely sympathetic.

"But if he saw a demon, it had to be there," Zero insisted. "He always saw the hidden monsters. Well, except maybe his mother."

"You're sure a demon would have been there?"

He nodded. "Yes. If he saw it, it was there. I can see normal monsters, but anything paranormal, I had to rely on X's senses. And there were lots of dangerous paranormal monsters in Ikari Tower."

"What about in Shadow Palace?"

Zero considered what was safest to tell, and what he wanted to tell. "Shadow Palace was... different. It was unbelievably scary, but I could see everything there."

"Did X come in contact with anything unusual there?"

"Nothing in the Palace was usual."

"I mean, anything even stranger than the Palace's norm."

"Not when I was with him," although Zero had no idea what would count as stranger than the Palace's norm. He hoped Signas didn't mean the Dream Mirror.

"You got separated?"

"Yeah. I don't know how long; it seemed like forever. I don't like being separated from X. It's not good."

"He protected you."

"No, I protected him."

Signas looked at him curiously. "You did?"

Zero bit his tongue lightly, then said, "Well he had taken care of me for as long as I can remember. But by the time we went into Shadow Palace, things had changed. X saw something Rock called the Paranoid Mirror." The child shivered. "That was a terrible day that I'll never forget. I promised him I wouldn't let anybody separate us again, and I would protect him. But I haven't been doing a very good job of it."

"The Paranoid Mirror? That's a terrible instrument. I can't imagine how he manages to come to class everyday. Unless..." Signas put his hands together and thought deeply on something.

"I hope X is okay now," Zero said. "They can't keep him for long."

Signas caught one of Zero's hands before he walked off. "If you want to help him now, you'd best tell his psychologist what you told me just now. That would be for the best."

"Okay, I will. I hope Sandy waited up for me. Bye Signas."

Zero walked out the door and looked around. The hall was empty. He glanced back in at Signas and saw that the teacher looked troubled. Zero shivered and ran down the stairs. They couldn't keep X for long, right?

* * *

February 13

"I was expected to be responsible, like an adult, before I turned one year old. Of course they would find my behaviors odd," child X said. He was in a psychiatric hospital, but speaking internally to his adult self. They were waiting on his assigned psychologist for this stay.

"Why were you expected to be so responsible so young?" the adult asked.

"Because I was smart. Circe called me a devil child for it."

"Did you think of yourself as a devil child?"

"Not really. I mean, at first it was discouraging, but then I read books that showed me that I was being neglected and abused. That made me feel like I was better than they were, at least."

"When was that?"

"Me reading that book? I was six weeks old, I think, when I first read that book. It was my favorite for a long time, called Robin's Family."

"You could read when six weeks old?"

"I was born knowing how to read. I stole my mother's literacy program when I was in her mind. It drove her nuts when I wanted to read and she didn't."

"So you learned things before you were even born."

"Yeah, but I couldn't tell you what. There were some things that I read in a book and found I already knew. Like math."

"Who taught you everything else?"

"I taught myself most things. Like walking. I knew reploid children usually don't start walking until they're four to six months old. When I was a month old, I was walking. That was because all the books were up on a shelf and I had to stand up to reach it. It was a lot of work, but I was bored out of my mind, stuck in one room, and rarely visited."

"I see. When did you start taking care of Zero?"

"He was four months old, and I was ten months. I was told that if he died, I would be killed. But even without that threat, I would have taken good care of him. It was one thing in my life I had control over, one person who was below me. I protected him and took better care of him then they were taking care of me. It was to prove I was better." The child paused. "Hey, why are you asking all these questions?"

"I have to know what the problem is to help you, X."

He felt puzzled. Something was off. He looked at his adult self and observed with his third eye. He found himself in an exam room, talking to a psychologist. The reploid doctor had black hair, red eyes, and simple brown clothes.

Child X frowned. "Hey, that was a dirty trick." He tapped his head.

The psychologist tilted his head. "Why did you say that and tap your head?"

"There's this alien in my head and I thought we were talking silently."

"An alien?"

"Yeah. Most of the time, he's been helpful, even when I didn't expect him to be. But that was a dirty trick."

"Actually, that was my trick."

"Your trick?"

"I hypnotized you to see someone you trusted, so you would talk more openly. I expected your father, but an alien?"

And he'd used a truth potion, X realized. Otherwise, he would have never mentioned his adult self to a total stranger. "I don't like you."

"Let's not make hasty judgments."

"What's hasty about it? This is supposed to be a trusting relationship, but I can't trust someone who uses hypnosis and truth potions without permission."

"Your father gave permission." The psychologist, Dr. Quail by his nameplate, handed over a slip with Rock's signature. "In this city, you are still a child who needs parental consent."

"You should have been told I would notice."

"That you seem to have some psychic ability, yes." His voice was skeptical, disinterested.

"I do."

"I'll be looking those proofs over carefully. Now,"

"This isn't going to work."

"Let's not make self-fulfilling prophecies. Look, let's give this until the end of the day. If you still don't want me, I'll agree to transfer you to another doctor. But I think you're just being obstinate."

"Fine," X said, although he already knew he'd insist on someone else. If he had to be here, he didn't want a psychologist who thought he was obstinate.

* * *

Quail led X to his room at the hospital. He put the child's things on a table, helped get him into a sleeping gown, then put him on his bed. "Are you comfortable?"

"Huh?"

"I'd rather put itching powder under his blankets," Enker said from where he was leaning on the wall.

Quail smiled. "That would be nice. Did you finish the papers?"

He handed over a file. "Yes. Called that devil up; told him his son needed a month here, preferably two. Arranged things with the hospital, filed all those medical reports... we can take him out a week from now."

"Good. We can't mess this up."

"So how are we getting the runt?"

"We aren't."

"Quint, you all right? We're not getting the runt?"

"I'd like to, just so I can strangle his father, but no."

Enker's silver eye glittered.

"You know how that is." He winked.

"So just X now? Thank goodness." His silver glittered again. "That little blond brat is a hellcat to deal with lately."

Quail/Quint rubbed his forehead. The contacts irritated his eyes. "Ikari says so long as one dies, they all will."

"You're kidding."

"No." He looked at his brother, then added, "It'll make things easier, at least."

"I guess. Might want to keep Ballade in the dark, or he'll..."

"He's the one who told me."

Enker was quiet for a while. "I can't wait for this to be over with." Then he looked back at X. "How'd you get him like this?"

"The nurse assigned to this room is a graduate student. She has no idea. Now, you'd better scram before they notice your silver eye."

"Right." The two of them left the room.

X comprehended nothing.

* * *

February 15, XX55  
Maple Street School

"Zero, wait a moment."

He paused in grabbing his coat. "Did I do something wrong?"

Alia shook her head. "No, I'm just worried about you. You've been quiet the past few days."

He pulled his coat down and brought it close. "X got sent to a mental hospital for something he touched in Shadow Palace months ago. I've only really been apart from him for a few hours, not days."

"I see. Has your family allowed you to visit him?"

"No, not yet. I wish I could and I ask every morning."

"Maybe you could write him a letter."

"Maybe. I gotta go."

"I hope he gets to come back home soon."

"Me too."

* * *

February 19

X's usual dreams were complex and vivid, reflecting both his mind and his gifts. But this dream was foggy. He walked around his own mindscape and didn't recognize it. He knew his third eye was giving him a vision, but of what?

He found his adult self, sitting against a post. He was half asleep. The child shook the adult's shoulder. "Hey."

The adult's eyes opened. "Good evening." They started closing again. "I'm going to sleep."

"No, don't. We're in big trouble now, but I don't know how or what. What's going on?"

He stretched and sat up, but was struggling to remain awake. "You're a smart boy. Look carefully at the clues given to you. Think logically about this place." He yawned and slipped back down.

"Stay awake; I need your help."

"I'd love to help." His eyelids slipped down. "My mindscape is much foggier."

The child looked at the adult dozing off. "You're only here as a soul. Whatever affects me affects you... this must be some problem with my mind if you're this much worse off."

"Good start," the adult mumbled. "Look and think logically."

"Okay. But I'm finding it hard to think. My emotions are apathetic for some reason."

"Don't think..." he yawned, "on how hard... it is... just think."

"Well, I drove off that virka."

The adult nodded and smiled sleepily. He must be proud of me, the child thought.

"But then I couldn't convince anyone that it was really there. I kinda wonder about that myself. Was I just delusional?"

"Move on."

"Um, okay." He thought through the fog. "I got sent to the hospital, where the psychologists put me through a long test. I got assigned to Dr. Quail. I hate him."

"Mmmhmm..." the adult's eyes were completely closed now and his head tilted forward. Then he brought it back up, trying to pay attention.

"But I agreed to try him out. Then I had supper and then... I don't remember anything after that."

"Supper," the adult muttered. "What happened?"

"At that supper? Um." The child searched for the memory. "It was grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. But before I ate, a nurse came up to me. She gave me a pill and told me Quail said it would reduce the demons I saw. I kinda argued, but I didn't want to see more demons. They seem to cause more problems when I actually notice them. So I took it and... then I ate... and I can't remember anything after dinner."

"Good."

"What's it mean? Oh... that pill Quail prescribed me. It's the thing that's making me bleary."

The adult yawned, then said, "I don't know about your world... but in my world... you don't prescribe that sort of drug... to kids."

"I think Dr. Quail is actually Quint. He could be, if he was wearing colored contacts or using an alteration spell. I'm in big trouble."

"There must... be a... way..."

The child scratched his head, then put his hand on the adult's shoulder. "I'm scared, but... I'll try this on my own. You might get hurt if you try to stay awake like this."

The adult squeezed his hand. "You don't have to... stay alone. You can... call for help... and not just... from me." He slipped off to sleep.

* * *

February 20  
St. Jude's Psychiatric Hospital

X took a bitter cold shower in the morning. It took some of the fog away, but not all of it. He put on the provided robes and sat shivering on the bed.

The nurse came in to find him like that. She patted his head. "Poor dear. Did you sneak outside?"

He shook his head. "The water got changed on me."

"That's not good. I'll tell maintenance to look into it. Here's your medication." She handed him the drug and tossed the empty bottle into the trash can. Then she waited.

X slipped the pill under his thumb, got ready to take it, then glanced out the door. When she glanced aside to see what had distracted him, he pretended to take it, then dropped the pill under his blanket. She looked back as he was drinking the water. His trick had worked.

"Can I wait to go to breakfast? I'm still cold."

"Don't wait too long. Is there anything else wrong?"

He shook his head. Nothing she could help with.

"All right. I'll be on call if you need me." She left.

X threw the drug away and pulled out the bottle. The label read 'Lenzaphine'. He wasn't sure he'd remember it, so he stuck the bottle in his pocket after he got dressed. Then he went to the cafeteria, even though he didn't feel hungry. He made himself eat a piece of toast and drink a glass of juice.

He had some free time before his first appointment with Dr. Quail. So far, he'd spent all of his free time in his room, unable to think. This morning, he went into a computer lab, signed in, then picked a computer far from the lab supervisor.

He found a medical guide, so put Lenzaphine into the search program. It brought up the full drug file, a mass of scientific information. Normally, X would find the information he wanted in a snap. Under the drugged fog, he had to read slowly and carefully.

Three facts stood out in his mind. 'For patients with high aura sensitivity and power, use lowest possible dosage only if nothing else works'. 'If patient becomes disoriented, confused, apathetic, foggy, or loses appetite, discontinue immediately'. And most telling, 'Never prescribe Lenzaphine to minors or patients under 100 pounds'. So he wasn't supposed to be on this stuff.

Now what? X looked at the drug file and tried to think. The only idea that came up was to call Rock. Once his father saw him like this, he would demand to know why and bring him back home. That had to work. He went over to the lab supervisor. "May I call home?"

"You sound sleepy," the man said.

"May I?"

"Let me check." He put a query into his computer. "X Light. You are not allowed to call outside the facility without your doctor's permission. Sorry."

"I'm not? Why?"

"It's standard for your class of patients."

"What class is that?"

"I can't tell you."

"You can't tell me."

"We informed your parents or guardians, and they'll have to tell you. Sorry."

"Can I send a net message?"

"No."

X went back to his computer. He had no idea what to do. He was trapped and he couldn't even be scared because of the drug. He had wished that the fear curse would be broken, but this wasn't much better.

Then he noticed the patient next to him was looking at his medicine bottle. "You have that new guy, Dr. Quail?"

He nodded.

"I don't like that guy," the patient on his other side said. "He came into our group therapy session yesterday."

"He doesn't seem to really care," the first one said.

"He's dangerous," X said. "He's trying to kill me."

"I don't know about that," the second said.

The first one picked up the bottle. "Then why's he on this stuff? It'll tame a lich, believe me. I heard they sometimes give it to condemned criminals so they don't care when they get executed."

"I have to tell my dad," X said. "He'll get me out."

The first one glanced over at the supervisor. "Go distract him."

The second one nodded and went over to the help desk.

Then the patient pulled out a cell phone. "Here, you can send a text message with my phone. Just, only use ten words."

"Only ten?"

He nodded, then spoke quietly, "I'm being stalked by a gang of phone demons, but if I don't keep my phone, I won't get any news from my girlfriend. I figured out they won't bother a message of ten words or less, but anything bigger then that, and they'll descend on me."

X shivered. "There are phone demons?"

"They're devious malicious things. Try not to get their attention."

"Okay." X looked at the cell phone and thought. Ten words. What did he say that made those ten words sound important, but not paranoid?

The message came to him. 'Dad, please come at 2. We have to talk, X.' He showed it to the phone's owner, to prove it was only ten words, then sent it off.

But what if the message didn't reach him? What if his dad saw the unfamiliar number and ignored it? What if he didn't check until after 2? What if he was too busy to come at 2? So many uncertainties filled X's mind. It was as bad as being stalked by a monster. Only, his senses were now deprived.

He talked to the other two patients, who were also there for paranoia. But at least they knew how X felt and were working to help him. The phone's owner promised if Rock called, he would relate what was going on.

Quail came into the computer lab. X knew the other two patients wouldn't do anything against him. Just so long as his dad came. He took the medicine bottle and put it back in his pocket. The false doctor talked to the supervisor. "What's he been doing?"

Please don't mention my request to call home, X thought.

"Just sitting quietly, reading stuff," the supervisor said.

"Okay." He came over to X's computer. He glanced at the drug file, then shut down the program. "Come child, it's time for our meeting."

X got up and followed Quail out. He felt odd. Command magic, he realized. Wily had been overly careful this time. But why had the nurse been easily fooled? Unless she was in on it too.

Quail examined the three elevators, then picked one. It opened up, empty. He brought X inside, then hit the 'shut door' button. "Why were you looking up drugs?" he asked, too casually.

His mind was still hazy, which may have been why he didn't feel scared stiff to be here. "I'm not supposed to be on Lenzaphine, Quint."

The Dark Hunter glared down at him. "You're not supposed to see through hypnosis, truth potions, command magic, illusions, and drugs at once."

"I did. Evil can't hide."

"And I noticed you didn't take your drug this morning."

X backed off a step and skimmed through his spell database. A closed elevator was a dangerous place to cast magic. "You can't make me."

Quint grabbed his shirt collar and lifted him off the floor. X found himself pinned to the wall. "Fool. It impairs your magic as well; I thought you would have noticed by now."

The child tensed and tightened his face. The Hunter still managed to force three of the Lenzaphine pills on him. One he managed to spit back out, but the other two nearly choked him when he was forced to swallow. Just before the elevator door opened on an upper floor, Quint dropped him to the ground.

Taking the chance, X darted out of the elevator and ran. He wasn't sure where he was going. But where others could see them, Quint had to be Quail. X accidentally found a dead end. Turning back allowed Quint to capture him. "Calm down..."

"Let me go!" X yelled, calling the attention of everyone nearby.

"It's all right; that was nothing."

X spotted three people in the hall, looking their way. It might not work, but it was worth a shot. "You're going to kill me, I know it!"

Quint was doing his best as Quail, the ordinary psychologist. But a look in his right eye, the normal one, was enough to betray the amount of disgust he felt in saying, "Dear child, it's nothing. Let's go talk this over calmly and logically."

X shrieked. Quint winced and loosened his grip for a second. A second long enough; X broke free and ran past him. He noticed a fire escape at the end of the hall. Now if he could get away before the drugs overcame him...

Thinking he was helping, one of the authentic doctors caught him on the way and cast a spell over him. Soul Drain, X recognized. It was a lethal spell against wizards at full power, as it drained aura. But the psychologist only used a therapeutic version, meant to calm him down from a berserk state. However, that kicked in the drug's power and X collapsed on the floor.

Quint came over, this time wearing a sufficient emotional mask. The real psychologist knelt by X. "Sorry, I must have miscalculated somewhere."

"It's fine, Richards," Quail responded. "His aura seems weaker, but sufficient."

Dr. Richards checked his vital signs by hand. "He should be okay with a few hours rest. You might not want to do anything major with him today."

"Right. I'll take him to my office for now." Quail picked him up.

"It'd be nice if we didn't have to see patients his age." Richards tousled X's hair. He genuinely cared.

"He's gonna kill me," X repeated.

But Richards went into his own office and Quail took X to his. He shut the door and put X on the couch. "Listen, you little devil child," Quint said quietly, "I can't do anything to you in this looney bin. But once we get you back to the Tower, we're going to make you suffer for all the **** you put us through."

X looked at his left eye, which was red, but actually was silver. "You're just a soulless puppet."

Quint slapped him in the face before catching himself. He glanced at the door. "You have no idea what you're talking about." He went back to his desk, grumbling and glaring.

The clock on the wall said 11:01. X closed his eyes. Was 2 o'clock the right time?


	27. Breaking the Frost

February 20, XX55  
St. Jude Hospital Plaza

Ska's orange aura glittered in hope. " _May I go see my mother this birthday? It's tradition."_

Blues thought about it. Ska was an older elf at twenty-four. Since they were delicate beings, most elves rarely lived beyond ten years, even bonded. Queen elves, on the other hand, could live long lives and have many children. If one of their children reached twenty-five, it was tradition for the child to visit the mother. "It is, and you should."

" _So can we?"_

"Certainly. We can head out to Fort Hope at the end of March."

Ska cheered and did a quintuple twirl in midair. Blues chuckled at his enthusiasm. " _That's great! If I can get a blessing from mother, I can advance to another class, so I can... hey, it's Rock! But something's wrong."_

"Wrong?" He looked ahead to the bus station where the elf had spotted him.

" _Well just look at him. That's not one of his usual expressions."_

He was right. Rock looked glum and disappointed. Blues hated seeing his brother so miserable, but having lived with him for over three decades like this, he knew what Rock was normally capable of feeling. This state indicated there had been a hope, fairly recent. Rock rarely hoped for anything while cursed.

Blues walked up to the bus station. Ska darted ahead. Rock noticed and looked up at the elf. Also unusual; normally he would not look at others, even when speaking. He also looked at Blues. "Hey bro."

Rock nodded. "Hey."

He sat down. "What's going on? Something is."

He sighed. "I don't know."

After a minute of silence, Blues said, "Tell me what you do know."

"About ten-thirty, I got a strange text message. I didn't know the number, but the message said it was X. He asked me to come see him at two, said he needed to talk. I don't know what about; his message was short. I called the number back and got some guy in the same hospital."

Blues looked over at the psychiatric hospital X was staying in. "Someone he knows?"

"The guy said it's vital that I speak to X. There's apparently something wrong that must be taken care of today. But then the guy had to shut off the line because he thought demons were in the phone lines. I went ahead and came at two."

"It's two-thirty now."

"I went into the hospital and asked where X's room was. I was told he wasn't allowed to have visitors. I told them I was his father. They said I couldn't go in. And I've been trying to reach him through the telepathy stones, but it's not working today."

"That's strange."

" _It's awful that they won't let you in_ ," Ska said, even if Rock couldn't understand him. The elf brushed his wings against Rock's cheek to show his sympathy.

He patted Ska's aura in exchange. "But X asked for me, and I feel it is vital that I go see him. He asked for me. I wondered, for a few hours..." he closed his eyes. Blues could have sworn Rock looked serene at that moment. "I wondered if he was ready to accept me as family."

"You know, I think X is weakening your curse."

His brother nodded. "He once told me that if I made him feel safe, I would be happy again. And Lulani said that our curses are interlinked and may both be broken by the spring equinox."

" _It could be,"_ Ska commented. " _From what Rock has told us, it might work."_

"That would be wonderful. But first we have to get to him."

A true smile almost got on Rock's face. "I was considering breaking into the hospital, finding him on my own. If it's that important, it could be worth it."

Blues put his hand on his chin and studied the hospital. "You know, normally you're the one for keeping the laws intact. But if your son needs you, we might be able to stretch things for a bit."

"Like causing a distraction so I can get in?"

Ska darted into the air, eager to be doing something important. " _I can make a great distraction!"_

Blues grinned. "I know you can. Now if we..." he dropped the thought mid-sentence.

"What?" Rock looked over to the psychiatric hospital.

Coming out the door was Quint, one of the Dark Hunters who had tried to kill them decades before. It was unmistakably Quint; Rock and Blues knew his aura all too well. He was carrying X, the child limp over his shoulder. A casual observer might think he was asleep. But X's aura was alarmingly weak.

Rock started to get up, thinking to yell for him to stop. Blues grabbed his arm. "Shh!"

"But..."

Blues got up and tried to act casual. "He won't think twice about harming the kid, or even killing him. We have to get X away first and foremost."

"Right," Rock replied. He used to be the one who took charge in a situation like this, but now his mind was completely blank. "So what do we do?"

"Follow me. Quietly."

Rock nodded and followed.

Blues sent a telepathic message of his plan back to Rock. Back when they fought Wily's troops actively, they used telepathy all the time. Now with Rock cursed, they rarely did. Rock responded, accepting the plan. Getting his response made Blues feel a little ill, a side-effect of the curse. But not as bad as usual, he noted.

They trailed Quint to the parking garage. The Hunter kept a wary eye out for pedestrians, but the brothers knew how to avoid those scans. Ska melded with Blues to enhance his senses, allowing them to know exactly where Quint's blind spots were. Inside, he put X down against a post and pulled out a piece of chalk, presumably for a portal.

They struck at that point. Rock went straight for X, grabbed him, then cast Adamant Guard to protect them. Blues and Ska struck Quint with Somber Petal Strike. He'd copied it off a flower monster many years ago. It locked magic use for both the caster and the target for thirty-six hours, although elves were immune. The magic lock capped Blues' power and special skills, but he could still fight as a master swordsman. And Ska's power remained, so he still had the boosted senses. Quint, on the other hand, relied on magic like Rock and would be at a small fraction of his usual power.

But just to make sure, Blues pinned Quint to the floor. "What did you do to X?"

Quint glared back defiantly. "X and Zero belong to the master. They must be returned. You should have never cared."

"He's my son," Rock said in anger. That was an emotion Blues definitely hadn't heard from his brother in decades. "Did you expect us to do nothing?"

"It's all you've been doing ever since father cursed you."

Blues activated his blade. "You deserve this, Quint."

" _Watch out, several incoming,"_ Ska warned internally.

They were quickly surrounded by the incoming teleports. Punk, Enker, and Ballade were there, as well as King and five other Wily reploids Blues didn't recognize right off. But from their silver eyes, they were obviously in the clan.

Quint smirked. "You can try, but you will die. Hand both boys over and we won't even kill Rock."

"That's a bummer," Punk said.

"Do we have to do that?" King asked.

"Yes," Quint said.

While they were talking, Rock telepathed, ' _We can't risk losing X. Let's go.'_

Blues was slightly tempted to go ahead with the battle. Quint wasn't going to last long in a fight. And if Rock was truly angered, it was likely that they would overpower the Wily reploids, even outnumbered and with Blues' magic locked. An impassioned wizard could be incredibly powerful. However, same wizard would easily lose control over his or her magic and that wasn't good in a city. And he had no idea if Soul Winter was broken or just weak. But most importantly, X was weak and they couldn't risk him. _'Right.'_

Rock teleported the three of them back home, where the Wily clansmen couldn't follow. Ska separated himself and sat on Blues' shoulder. " _Meanies."_

"They never change."

Rock put X on an exam table they kept in the receiving room for emergencies. "X, are you awake?"

X smiled at hearing that. Then he pulled a medicine bottle out of his pocket. Blues took it from him

"Hmm, Lenzaphine, haven't heard of that one." He entered it into the diagnostics computer. It wasn't long before he spotted that it wasn't to be given to children or wizards. "Have the computer run a full check on him. I'm going to call Poison Control."

"All right."

Blues stepped out of the room, although Ska stayed with Rock to help. While he searched out the number, Roll came downstairs. "Ah-ha, thought I heard someone sneak in."

"X is in trouble," Blues said, indicating the receiving room. Roll became concerned and went in there.  
He talked with the Poison Control Center and went into the room to get the diagnostic reading for them. While he did that, he noticed Roll was hugging Rock, who was crying. Blues concentrated on getting the information relayed. Then he had to go upstairs to let the emergency doctor in, since only family members were approved to teleport into the residence. Roll handled all the doctor's questions about X's health and mental state.

Then Rock said, "His curse has been altered by the drug. I can sense the difference, but I don't know what it's evolved into. The Paranoid Mirror Curse was bad enough..."

"We'll help him, no matter what," Roll said, hugging him again as he was in tears still.

"Your curse has been broken," Blues said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be crying."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Rock replied.

* * *

February 20, XX54  
St. Jude's Pediatric Hospital

X's mind was clear. Finally. But something was wrong. He wasn't sure what, but something...

There was too much noise, he decided. A soft hiss, a loud buzz, a steady hum in five parts, many clicks, some scratching, some footsteps, and various talking all surrounded him. He tried to concentrate on the talking. He thought he heard an elf's voice among them, so tried to pick that out. But there was so much talking that it all became more noise. In his mind even. Something was poking at his mind and it was terrible.

And it would help if he wasn't lying on sandpaper. He could feel it all over, a rough itchy surface everywhere. And there were smells, not all bad, but so many of them: pine scented cleaners, citrus scented hand lotion, a dog, chemicals he didn't know, but most of all a potent fake vanilla air freshener. He opened his eyes, to figure out where he was with so much chaos.

He was in a hospital, not on sandpaper, but on bed sheets with a thin blanket on him. But it still felt like sandpaper. There was a monitoring device by his bed; that was the thing poking at his mind. It looked sharp edged and harsh; the screens turned his life signs into impersonal numbers and lines. There was a healing crystal also attached to him that steadily increased and decreased in brightness. That was nearly as bad as the light overhead that continually flickered. Although the balloon nearby, with its shiny surface, curling ribbons, and bright colors, that somehow seemed monstrous, like a metallic jellyfish.

Rock was there. "You're okay now," he said, touching X's forehead.

Normally, that would be comforting in the strangeness of this normal place. X wasn't even sure why this normal hospital room was making him tense. Maybe it was the balloon, drifting about like a monster pretending to be a balloon. But when Rock touched him, he shuddered. It wasn't a nice touch, although X could see it was meant to be nice. His father's touch made his skin crawl, like a scorpion was walking across his forehead, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Rock took his hand off, looking as confused as X felt.

His uncle came in and said something. Whatever he said, it was much too loud and came to X only as more noise. Then Ska darted in. His orange aura was reflected in the monster balloon, making it even scarier.

X screamed.

* * *

X woke up again, this time to silence. He was in a different bed with different sheets. They didn't feel so much like sandpaper. More like rough cotton. When had he fallen asleep? Or had he just blacked out? Or... had that balloon really been a monster metallic jellyfish?

He opened his eyes warily. There was hardly anything in this room. There was this bed, twin sized. There was a table with a drawer, a lamp, and a glass of water. The walls were painted a warm tan. The floor was white tile, but it wasn't cold. And the room was small, like a closet. One might be able to fit another twin bed inside, but that would be it.

There was one window; a beige curtain covered it. X pulled it aside; it was dark out, but even if he could see, he didn't pay attention to beyond the window. He paid attention to the window; more precisely, the frost that had formed on it.

"Something's wrong," he said softly. He looked over the frost patterns. But not to the whole. X looked at the tiny lines of ice that formed the patterns and followed them around the window. He tried to pull back and look at the whole pattern, but the details were all he was able to pay attention to.

'I agree,' the adult said in his mind. 'I'm not sure what it is. Your curse has changed, but I can't tell how.'

"It has. I don't know how either. I don't think the balloon monster would have scared me into screaming before. I think."

'It wasn't so much the balloon as the balloon plus everything else...'

Someone knocked.

X tensed. He looked away from the window and at the door. It started to open. Was it one of the Hunters?

'Calm down,' the adult said. 'Take a deep breath; it's not likely to be one of them.'

"But it could be," he responded.

"X?" It was Rock.

"Dad!" Rock came in and shut the door behind him. X ran over and hugged him.

It was like millions of ants were crawling all over him. When Rock responded by putting his hand on X's shoulder, it was like a leech had joined in. X backed off, shuddering. His lungs tightened up and his head felt light.

Rock said something, but X couldn't understand. He couldn't even understand his adult self when he said something. X closed his eyes and tried to calm down. Just breath, he told himself. Just ignore everything else.

When the panic attack passed, he opened his eyes. Rock was sitting on the bed. He looked deeply distressed. But when he noticed X had calmed down, he smiled warmly. And it wasn't one of his fake smiles. It was a real smile, and it lasted.

"Your curse has been broken," X said. He smiled himself.

"It has." Then Rock bit his lip. "But yours has worsened."

X sat on the bed next to Rock. "What happened to me? I don't understand what's going on."

"We could have broken the Paranoid Mirror Curse. It would have been difficult and terrifying, but it could be done. But your curse has evolved into Berserker Overload, and that one... it can't be broken by the usual methods."

"Berserker Overload? I haven't heard of that one."

"It normally comes from individuals who use the spell Berserk too much. They... you... you notice too much."

"I was looking at the frosted glass over there and found out I couldn't look at the whole pattern, because I kept looking at the fine lines."

"Yes, that's it. You notice every single detail that comes into your senses. Normally, you would screen out unimportant details so you can focus. Now you can't focus. Even worse, you can notice so much that it overwhelms you. Most Berserkers enter their berserk state when overwhelmed. But since this curse came from a fear curse, you end up in terrified hysterics."

"I kept from it this time. Even though my skin felt like it was crawling with ants. And leeches. And scorpions." He shuddered just at the thought.

Rock looked particularly upset at that. "Yes... your new psychologist said you shouldn't be touched anymore. It was a close call," Rock said, after an awkward silence. "I'm glad you're alive." For a moment, it seemed he would add something that would null that statement. He caught it before it came out.

X still felt it. "I'll do what I can to control it. I was nearly in control of the fear curse."

"Really?"

"I almost got away from Quint. Then I told him he was a soulless puppet."

"That's true. Although I've always wondered how much they can feel for themselves. Especially after Forte got out."

X tapped his knee. His own touch didn't bother him. But the idea that the touch of others could drive him berserk did. It should have gotten better when he could read his dad's real emotions. But nothing had changed. This conversation was still stifled.

Rock looked over at him. "X, I know you've very bright. Do you know what the Hunters were doing with you?"

'I can't tell him that,' the child thought. 'That's how I got put in this hospital in the first place.'

'Try again,' the adult advised.

'But it won't work. It didn't last time.'

'Don't mention me this time. Just tell him about the death spell.'

X took a deep breath. "Actually, I do. Master Wily and Master Domino used me for most of the spellwork and I overheard a lot a discussion. I don't understand all of it, but..."

When X didn't speak for a while, Rock asked, "Albert Wily is still alive, then?"

X shrugged. "I dunno. I heard his voice; at least, I think it was his voice. Ikari did the physical end of the spells. But I never actually saw Master Wily."

"His usual methods. What were they doing?"

"You remember that evil crest we saw at Christmas?"

"Yes. Can't forget it."

"It's a sacrificial spell. It will kill me and Zero to summon Zero."

"What about Zero?"

"Sorry, I..." He twisted his hair. "I meant it will kill Zero Light to summon Zero Wily."

"That doll? But it can't be revived in the state it's in."

"I don't know how it happened, but Ikari captured Zero Wily's unborn soul and placed it within Zero Light's body. That half soul is also known as the Fire Dragon, the bringer..."

"Of eternal summer," Rock said.

"You knew that?"

Rock pulled out a notebook and began making notes. "I just realized it. I knew Zero Wily was linked with summer and fire. I nearly brought him to life."

X recalled that from his vision of his dad's past, but said nothing about it.

"But by the time I located him, I was heavily cursed with Soul Winter and his programming was mostly gone. I wonder if this means that they summoned the Ice Dragon."

"They did. From what I heard, they had some argument over how to summon her and wound up losing control. They're trying to revive the Fire Dragon to fight the Ice Dragon. And it doesn't matter which dragon wins. Wily and Domino will be able to control the winner, and then who can stop them?"

"You're right."

"The death curse... it's set to kill us on the vernal equinox."

Rock tensed. "This vernal equinox? March 21st?"

X nodded. "In a month."

"Oh..." Rock bit his tongue on some curse. "We have to find a way to break that crest. At least it's complex. It's easier to find a loose end in a complex spell."

X swung his legs out. "Wily and Domino have worked on the Fire Dragon summoning for forty years, ever since Zero's parents fell in love. There is only one was to break it, at least, that I know of."

"What's that?"

"Zero, or I, or both of us, have to kill the Ice Dragon before the equinox. If anybody else kills her, we'll die and the Fire Dragon will come to life. If she lives at the dawn of the equinox, the crest will activate."

Rock put his pen down, his face full of worry. "Do you know how many people are in the Snow Patrol?"

X shook his head.

"Two hundred thousand, all following your uncle and I. All of us have been trying for over twenty-five years to kill her. And now, just having a month... and even if we managed to find her weakness, for just two boys your age to go against an overpowered dragon... the chances are slim."

X touched Rock's arm. His fingers felt like they'd picked up a leech, so he withdrew the hand. "Dad, there is something you can do. Check out Zero and the parasitic half soul. Don't worry; the viruses are on the body, not in the soul. If you study the Fire Dragon, you might find a way to push the deadline back to the next vernal equinox, or maybe even later. If it's just time and inexperience blocking us, delaying the deadline is the most logical course."

Rock picked his pen back up and wrote quickly. "You're right. I can see maybe a year working, although I would prefer longer. And maybe you don't have to go alone. Maybe just one of you needs to give the deathblow to cancel the crest. Blues and I can go with you, and we can find some other warriors in the Snow Patrol to help."

"Forte too," X insisted. "His son is involved, so he has to be there."

"You're right. With Zero's life at stake... I think we can trust him."

"You can. So can we go home?"

He paused writing again. "I'm sorry, but you have to stay here for another week."

"I have to stay?" His throat tightened. X tried to fend off this panic attack as well.

"You need therapy to gain control over Berserker Overload; that's the best treatment for it. But I'll be here. I'm staying in the next room over, so any time you need me, you just send me a com message and I'll come. And I'll be bringing Zero over to visit sometime. He's been pestering us for a visit every day."

"Dad?" X crossed his arms over his chest.

"What?"

"Why is it that every time my life gets a little better, it gets much worse?"

Rock reached out to touch him, but then remembered at the last moment and dropped his hand. "I wish I knew so I could stop it."

* * *

February 23  
St. Jude's Psychiatric Hospital

There was a knock. "Is it okay, X?"

"You can come in, Zero."

"Your room's little." Zero came and sat on the bed. "So you don't like being touched now?"

"It makes my skin crawl, like I'm covered in ants and leeches. And nearly everything else feels like sandpaper or wool."

"Sometimes when I lose my temper, everyone's touch seems to burn me."

After a moment's quiet, X asked, "Are you okay?"

"Seems like everyone is asking me that. Even Signas found me at recess one day to ask. Gets annoying after a while."

"But how do you feel?"

Zero frowned. "How am I supposed to feel? I tried to help you by telling all the adults that it was real, and they put you here. Then I wrote you a letter and you never answered. And then Quint nearly ran off with you. I don't know how I feel."

"You wrote me a letter?"

"Yeah. Didn't you get it?"

"I don't know if I did. That medicine put me in an awful haze. I don't remember being contacted."

"But you called Rock every night to talk. You always sounded tired, and didn't talk long."

"I called?"

"Yeah."

"Quint was probably controlling me. I know he hypnotized me at least once."

"I should have tried harder to convince them that the virka wasn't in your imagination."

X shook his head. "I doubt the virka was there myself, at least now I do. It was behaving oddly for that sort of demon. What's happening to me isn't your fault."

"But I'm supposed to be protecting you. I promised." Zero hit the bed. "But I haven't protected you one bit. I'm a horrible guardian."

"No, I've been a horrible guardian. I was supposed to take care of you and keep you happy. But then I saw that mirror and everything went wrong."

"You weren't bad. You taught me to be nice and everything. And then my..." Zero paused, as if not sure what he was going to say next.

X sensed it, though, and felt it wasn't right. "I think you should talk openly about your feelings to your dad."

He looked flustered. X had answered his half-question, half-statement precisely without hearing it. "What? But he..."

"You can trust him. You once did."

"I don't remember that time."

"You're lying. At the very least, you know that time in your dreams."

"But my dreams are normal silly dreams." He tapped his fingers against his knees. "They're not like your dreams of truth."

"I remember how you trusted him. When you first came to the Tower, you spent weeks looking for him, even under the chair and blankets. 'Daddy' was the only word I heard you use for a long time. And I especially remember when you realized he wasn't there and sobbed for two hours until you fell asleep. Your separation hit you as hard as it hit him. That's the honest truth and that's why you can trust him with anything."

"But I can talk to you about everything. I don't need to talk to him. Really."

"You do because you're not telling me everything."

"I am!" he insisted.

Feeling fed up with a great many things, X snapped, "You're hiding the truth because you don't want to hurt me. You don't want me to know about the dark dreams the Fire Dragon gives you of killing me. The ones with ice and fire."

Zero paled. He knew about X's prophetic gifts, had known about them before he knew what they were. But used on him, it was still stunning. "But X, I..." he burst into tears.

X felt awkward. Maybe he shouldn't have said that, since he wasn't entirely sure what Zero's dreams were showing, except his death. He took a few deep breaths, then hugged Zero. He was going to say something encouraging, that he should talk to Forte soon, but his throat seized up. His muscles tensed and his skin crawled. Sliding towards a berserk state, X struggled against it. He could control his condition when something like friendship or bravery was needed.

After a minute, Zero calmed down enough to remember the warnings. He stood up and took a step back. "Sorry, but... thanks."

X's right hand was shaking, so he gripped it with his left. He realized his entire body was shaking. He could still feel the ants and scorpions crawling over him. No, he had to say something in parting, at least.

"So um... I'll see you later. I guess." Zero waited for a response.

A nurse picked entirely the wrong moment to open his door. She was supposed to check on him, but forgot to knock. X's mind transformed her into an agent of Wily and he screamed. He took his pillow and threw it at the nearest perceived threat. Unfortunately, that was Zero.

Rock came in and tried to explain to the nurse. X hid under his blanket. The nurse, nervous and confused, left the room so Rock could calm him down. But the first thing he had to do was lead a stunned Zero out of the room. Zero had known what the problem was, but didn't realize the severity of the situation until he saw X lose his mind for himself.

* * *

February 23  
Light residence

Zero was getting ready for bed. He had his homework all done, he had taken a bath, and he had finished his chores. He was just waiting on his hair to dry out so he could brush it. After shutting his door, he said aloud, "Sometimes X's gift annoys me."

'Because it's true?' adult Zero replied.

"Yeah. If I don't want him finding out about something, he knows about it anyways."

'He just said you need to talk to your dad. Why are you so nervous?'

"I don't know."

'I notice you're thinking of Adanya.'

Right, the adult could hear strong thoughts. "It makes me worried. X thought his mother was all wonderful, but then she turns out to be horrid and would rather see him die. I get worried about my dad sometimes being like that. Rock and Blues are watching him, even if they try to hide it."

'But X is right in that you have good dreams of your father.'

"Yeah. I always thought he would come for me. I know now why he couldn't, but still..."

'If you're not comfortable talking openly to him yet, why not just talk to him to make sure he isn't being fake like Adanya was? That way, at least you'd know.'

"I guess. If he's against me, he couldn't do much here. But what reason should I give for just talking to him? Cause I do just want to talk, and that sounds silly."

'It doesn't. People in my world say I'm anti-social, but I know sometimes it's best just to talk.'

"I don't know."

'You could ask him to brush your hair.'

"Why?"

'You were the one who told me that your father used to brush your hair every night before you went to bed. It's obvious, to me at least, that was how Ikari tricked you, by mimicking your father's actions.'

"How could he know something like that?"

'We can't know now. Go on, take your hairbrush and go see your dad.'

Child Zero still thought it sounded silly, but then he came up with an idea. "I know: I can ask him about that plane I lost. That'll be good."

'It would be.'

Satisfied with that, the child picked up his brush. He thought for a moment of tying his hair back, but then decided to leave it loose. He went upstairs to his father's room.

Forte was staying on the fourth floor, saying he didn't want to interfere too much. It must be uncomfortable for him to be in the house of his old enemy, the child thought. But he's doing it for me. I ought to be grateful.

His door was open, showing that he was reading a book. Zero hoped he wasn't too into it and knocked on the door. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

Forte looked up. "Sure, what?"

"I lost one of my planes yesterday. It's a silver J-59 with blue markings."

"A J-59? Would it be this one?" Forte twitched his fingers and brought out the plane by telekinesis.

Zero caught it as it came to him. "That's it! Thanks. Where was it?"

"Down in the great room in one of the window seats."

"That's where I thought I left it."

"I just forgot to get it back to you after school."

"That's okay." Zero paused, wondering how he could be talked into staying.

Forte thought of it first. "Why've you got your hair loose?"

Zero ran his fingers through it. It was nearly dry enough. "Oh, I was going to brush it before I go to bed. If I don't, I get these horrible knots and kinks in my hair."

"Yes, and your hair is too pretty to get mussed up."

"Dad!" He blushed and tried not to. "I just don't like taking the knots out. They hurt."

"I'm kidding you. Here, I'll brush your hair."

"Why?"

"I used to brush it every night when you were little. And I always thought you liked it."

"I remember that too. Kinda. Okay, here you go." He sat on the couch by Forte and handed over his brush.

Forte ran his hand along Zero's hair. The child knew the feel of the gesture, and it was still comforting after all this time. When they last did this, Zero would have barely been able to walk and babble. He wondered about that time.

"And what do you mean by when I was little? I've always been little."

"I meant littler. Hang on a moment." He called over a large photo album. The flower picture was right on front. Forte flipped in a few pages, then pointed one out. "See, you were very little. The cat living on our floor was bigger than you were."

The picture was of him in orange pajamas sleeping in an armchair. He had hair back then, as long as he was. Sleeping next to him was an orange cat that was noticeably larger than he was. "Huh. So I have always been small."

Forte started to brush the ends of Zero's hair. "He was a large cat, for a domestic. That was when you were a week old. Go back to the first pages; they're from your first day."

He turned back and noticed a picture of Forte in what appeared to be the same armchair. Most child reploids were born with a base armor that developed with them, and Zero was wearing his in this picture. He was asleep and Forte looked exhausted, but watching him closely. "Who took these pictures? My mom?"

"No, not her. I had a human friend at the time who was studying photography in art school. She liked taking baby portraits and you were one of her favorite subjects."

"Why was I so little? Couldn't you have them build me bigger?"

Forte shook his head. "No, this is what your starting programs called for. You were about 9 inches long when most reploids start at 11 to 15 inches. The doctor said you were the smallest reploid she ever built. And you saw yourself this way when you were in my mind."

"I was in your mind? I thought a kid had to be in his mother's mind."

"Initially, yes, you were in your mother's mind, but you were born from mine."

"Why'd I get moved? Did my mother die?'

"No, although that is what I told people. Your birth was a surprise to both of us and... there were some problems. We decided to put you into stasis until we worked everything out. But things went wrong, and I got delayed, and from one thing to another, you were in hibernation for a very long time."

"Like X was? He told me once that he spent thirty-five years in hibernation."

"You spent just over forty years."

"Sheesh, that long? What happened?"

"A lot of stupid mistakes, I can see now. Nothing wrong with you. I've always been trying to get you brought to life with our family whole, but it couldn't happen that way."

"Is my mother still alive?"

"Yes, she is."

Zero thought a moment. "Am I causing problems for you two?"

"No, nothing like that. Far from it. You're not part of the problem, but you may be part of the solution."

"Are you sure? I don't wanna be trouble."

Forte patted his head. "Don't worry about it. We brought this problem onto ourselves and we'll find a way to solve it. I'm afraid all you can do now is be patient."

"I guess. But who is my mother? Is she okay?"

"She's fine, but I can't tell you who she is right now."

"Why not?" Zero tried to keep from sounding whiny, but some slipped out.

Forte was quiet for a moment. "We brought this on ourselves. We knew there were risks and we knew the situation could get twisted out of shape. But we loved each other, and went ahead... at this point, there's little about revealing the truth that would harm me. With your mother, however, there would still be strong repercussions."

"Why's that?"

"I'm still from the Wily clan, even if I cut myself off. The stigma of that could harm her greatly. Not to mention her... relatives wouldn't be happy with either of us if they knew."

"I guess so."

"Something bothering you?"

"Some of the kids at school have been teasing me about that. I've not been biting anyone for a while, which is good, but it makes the bullies less afraid of teasing me. Especially since there's some other kids from the Wily clan in school; they got sent to the bad kids' school last month."

"I'll tell you a secret, since I've lived among many bullies in my brothers. A bully feels like you do, like they're small and powerless."

"But I really am small, and I'm not a bully."

"The difference between you and them is that they try to be more powerful by making their victims feel weaker. If you make a brave and honorable stand, they won't feel powerful and they should stop."

"I don't want to be a bully. I'd lose my sword." His mind came back to another idea. "Hey dad?"

"What?"

"You think if I wrote a letter to mom, she would come see me?"

He seemed surprised by the offer, but pleasantly so. "I'm not sure she would. But she would love to hear from you directly, and I'm fairly certain she would write you back."

"Really? Cause I don't know her and I wish I did know her. I know she used to sing to me. Isn't that weird? I only knew her mind, but I know she sang to me."

"If you write her, I'll get it to her as soon as possible, and get her response to you immediately."

"That's great! I'll have to think about it for a little bit. There's so much I want to ask her."

"Please don't be harsh on her silence. I know she's being shy and overanalyzing this, but we don't want to make her uncomfortable. She'll come to you when she's ready."

"I hope she comes soon."

"How did your visit with X go?"

"Okay, I guess. I couldn't stay long. Someone spooked X and I had to leave."

"That's not good. X doesn't deserve to live under a curse like that."

"I know. I don't get it. X is so nice and smart, but horrible things keep happening to him."

"Don't get discouraged; try to keep his spirits up too. Things will get better when your death curse is lifted."

Zero looked back at his father. "You're really gonna let us fight the Ice Dragon?"

"It looks to be the best way. But you'll have the assistance of the best fighters in the world, including me. No one wants to see you children die, even if it brings back spring."

"I'll do the best I can."

"And I'll do my best in training and helping you. We'll make sure you know how to handle things."

"You know, I saw the Ice Dragon once. She had this massive armor made entirely of ice, and she threw this large spike of ice into a boulder and turned it into a bunch of pebbles. But then the Fire Dragon was there too, and he melted the ground."

"I wish you didn't have to be involved in a fight with such deadly creatures."

He said that with deep feeling and true regret. X was right yet again. "At least we're just fighting the Ice Dragon. I don't wanna fight the Fire Dragon. He scares me more, even in that body from the museum."

"I would be hesitant to fight anything in that doll's body. As I heard it, my father made him ungodly powerful and put a double curse in wait, just in case someone managed to defeat him. Still, it makes me uneasy that he can't be destroyed and that weapon is just kept in a museum. At some point, some nutcase is going to revive him and cause all sorts of trouble. I hope we're prepared for a time like that."

"His soul has no sympathy or kindness at all."

Forte hugged him a little. "You're a brave one to be living with him every day. I hope X is right in that destroying the Ice Dragon will destroy that soul. If you need anything at all from me, don't hesitate to ask."

"I know." Zero thought for a moment, then asked, "I just want to know this, but yesterday, Dr. Ciel asked me a whole bunch of questions, and then today she said that tomorrow she would run an AAD on me. What's that?"

"Aural Analysis Diagnostics. You know how every spell is made up of some composition of the forty-nine elements?"

"Kinda. X has tried to explain it to me, and I know some spell formulas. Like Na=9pl+3wi+Ypl. That's the formula for Thousand Needle; it's pretty easy."

"Nature ring spells usually are easy."

"But I always just use 3 for Y, cause I know that works. On the other hand, X can use any number he wants for Y, and he can do all sorts of weird functions. Like inverting fractions, substitute elements, splicing, and something like added environmental something-or-another..."

"You probably mean adaptive environmental algorithms."

"Yeah, whatever that means. What's that have to do with what Ciel's doing to me tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure that explanation will work. Let's see." He brushed quietly for a minute, then said, "Okay, let's pretend that your soul is actually a book."

"A book? What language is it written in?"

"Runic language. So instead of letters, the words are made up of runes."

"Oh, okay. That would be a hard book to read."

"It is. But the AAD computer can read your soul book and tell us what's written inside."

"So it could read anything about me? Like all my memories?"

"Not exactly... it's like... well, you have Dusty Blade, right? Your book would record that, so at one point, the AAD computer will read, 'I am blessed to have the Dusty Blade, and I intend to follow the code of honor the Dust Bunny King teaches me'."

"That's true."

"Ciel will be looking for rune words and phrases that don't belong to you, though. She'll be looking for the Fire Dragon's words."

"How's she gonna tell that from my words?"

"Every soul book, so to speak, starts with a set number of runes that will never change over the soul's life. These runes will say stuff like, 'I am Zero, the son of Forte'. She'll look for obvious stuff like that, and from there can figure out which words are yours and which are the Dragon's. It would be like... oh, finding a horror story in a collection of romances."

"I see. But I don't think my soul book is full of romances."

Forte tapped Zero's shoulder. "I wouldn't say that. The story of your mother and me is a romance, and that would be written in all three of our soul books."

"So what's the story? Tell me!"

"No, sorry, you're not old enough to be hearing that."

"When am I gonna be old enough? Tomorrow?" They both laughed at that.

There was a knock at the door, and Roll peeked in. "Oh, there you are. Sorry, I was just wondering where Zero was."

'We're talking," Forte said. "Sorry to have worried you."

"That's fine. But you'd better not stay up long, Zero. You've got school tomorrow."

"I know."

"I'll let him go as soon as I finish his hair."

"All right. Well, good night, both of you."

"Good night Roll!" Zero called after her.

Forte leaned forward and whispered, "Of course, if I happen to do this slowly, you wouldn't mention it to her, right?"

Zero grinned. "Not if it means we can talk longer."

* * *

February 24  
Light residence

The AAD test went well, Zero thought, although he couldn't be sure because he didn't fully understand it. After some trial and error, he and the adult had figured out how to have him in his shadow body in the house, so his 'soul book' didn't interfere with the child's or the Dragon's. Now all he could do was wait on research and train with his dad.

And Blues. Blues had come across them discussing where they should practice and let them use the practice room on the third floor. That is, provided he got the foam rematch with Zero first. Zero was all for that, and Forte was curious to know how he was doing with King Gage's training.

He was actually being a little aggressive this time, attempting to tap Zero instead of just defending. Zero managed to block twice. Blues still blocked well, but he missed catching four of the child's strikes. From Gage and the battle with Zero Wily, he had figured that his best chances now were hitting his opponent's knees and ankles. He could do that in a normal stance and those strikes were too low for most adult opponents to block readily.

"Okay, that's good," Forte said to Zero's fourth strike.

Blues smiled and tapped Zero's head. "Nicely done, short stuff. I think I would be having a hard time walking now."

Zero grinned back. "You can't catch me if you can't walk."

"That's a good thing to remember."

Forte got out of the chair he'd been observing from. "All right, let's discuss your weapons. You have Dusty Blade and a magic broom."

"It's called Star Chaser," Zero said as he summoned the orange and green broom.

"Star Chaser, huh? You know anything about flying brooms?"

Blues shook his head. "Nope. That's the first one I've ever seen."

Zero set it to float. "It doesn't just fly. It can attack with Dirt Tornado if you sweep a dirty room first. And I once got it to deflect a magic orb."

"It has Reflect on it?" Blues touched it; it wouldn't budge for him. "That's an incredibly useful spell, but you have to know what it can and can't reflect. We'd have to get Rock or Star to look it over to see which Reflect it has."

"Star would know. Where did you get this broom?"

Zero shrugged and sent the broom away. "X gave it to me when I was about six months old, I think. You'd have to ask him where he got it. But it only seems to work for me; it won't even listen to X."

"Magic objects can be picky," Blues said.

"Well since we don't know anything more about it, let's work on your sword. Blues, would you mind activating your sword for comparison? I'm still using mostly daggers."

"No problem." He had Mlapan out and active in under a second.

Zero pulled out Dusty and activated it, although his draw wasn't nearly as fast.

Blues sat down on the floor. "It's a point of a spell sword's honor to never give his own weapon up and to never take another's without permission while the other is alive."

"There's another code of honor?" Zero asked.

"It's a Nature ring code," Forte said. "The wizards..."

"Warriors."

"Right, wizard-warriors of the Nature ring are called spell swords, whereas I'm called a warlock of the Warlock ring."

"They have no imagination," Blues whispered.

Forte smiled slightly at that. "Hey, watch your mouth. Now, his sword is a specialty blade, but it will do for this comparison. Mlapan is a master's blade; Dusty is a training blade."

"Yeah, cause I can't use proper rune blades yet," Zero said. He looked at his own light brown blade as compared to Blues' reddish orange blade. "But what's the difference?"

"For one thing, there's the handle. Gage may have told you this, but there is only one way you can hold Dusty and wield it. This grip makes sure you are holding it right before it's even activated."

The adult had been wondering why the rubber grip was oddly shaped. Ergonomic, but oddly shaped. Put that way, it made sense. "I figured that out a couple of months ago."

"I can hold this any which way I want and it'll work," Blues said. "But it works best when I hold it exactly the same way you hold Dusty, see?"

"This hold also minimizes damage to the handle itself," Forte added. "If the handle gets damaged, you're in a lot of trouble. The material might leak out and hit you; the sword could even explode in your hand."

"That would hurt."

"It does," Blues said. "Although, my experience with handles exploding is when trying to use a sword spell technique with a weakly constructed sword. I've managed to put holes in my hand you could see through that way."

"You don't have to worry about Dusty exploding. It's a well constructed, resilient blade. I've heard stories that you could run it over with a steam roller and have it still operational."

"Kids train with them; they have to be tough."

Forte moved his hands to right over Zero's blade. "Another difference is the blade material. Most blades with burn anything they touch."

"Mlapan will scald and chemically burn anyone who tries to touch it," Blues said.

"I'm well aware of that," Forte said dryly. "Dusty will do a lot of damage too, but here's the trick; if you try to touch Dusty's actual blade, it will only sting you."

"I know that," Zero said. "This wrist guard part sometimes stings me." He indicated where the blade came below the handle about six inches to surround his wrist and hand.

"That guard is there to keep your hand from being cut off in battle," Blues said. "But it's a tricky thing to learn to use properly. You can always tell a student swordsman who's used one for the first time because they have burns all over their wrist."

"And some of them will even cut their own hand off accidentally."

Zero made a face. "That can't help."

"But since your blade only stings, you're fine with learning proper use of a wrist guard."

"So if I don't get stung, I have the swing right?"

"Basically, yes."

"That isn't the only curious thing about Dusty's blade," Blues said. "I've heard stories... I've not actually seen it proved, but the story is that if you accidentally hit someone you love, whether your parent, or friend, or sibling, it won't damage them either. It will just bounce right off with a few sparks."

"Don't go trying that, though," Forte said. "I'm not sure how valid those stories are."

"I'm careful with it," Zero insisted. "Gage is very strict on his code of honor and I don't want to lose Dusty Blade."


	28. Night of the Phoenix

February 27, XX55  
St. Jude's Psychiatric Hospital

X was dreaming of the adult's world. The child saw some early spring flowers. The adult said, "When these show up, there will be no more frost."

"How do the flowers know that?"

"They aren't set the bloom until the ground gets warm enough. That means..."

A mournful cry interrupted their conversation. Overhead, a shining white creature flew. It had wings of frost and tail feathers of ice. Where it went, snow fell.

The child backed up. "It's the Ice Dragon! Will it move from our world to yours?"

The adult looked up at it. "That's not a dragon!"

X woke up.

The aura of the city had shifted, he immediately noticed. It was now overwhelmed with ice. X got up and ran to the window, rubbing off condensation. The city still looked normal. Then the Ice Dragon passed by. The city shields were gone. No longer wearing her ice armor, she looked like a large white and silver bird. Her wings were large and frosty; her tail was long, impressive, and icy. But her plumage looked dull and worn.

X watched her closely. When she passed out of sight, he said, "She's not like any dragon I've ever seen before."

'She's not a dragon,' the adult repeated. 'She's a phoenix.'

"What's a phoenix?"

'You've never heard of one?'

"No... should I have? I've read many monster books, but never saw a phoenix in any."

The adult brought out what information he had on phoenixes. 'It's a mythical bird in my world. No, it doesn't exist, but the idea and the story are there. A phoenix is an immortal bird of fire. When it grows weak or gets injured, it burns itself to ashes. But from those ashes, the phoenix reemerges whole.'

"But why is this one of ice and not fire? And how are we supposed to kill an immortal bird?"

'I don't know. Most stories consider them holy creatures, so I wouldn't know how to kill one. On the other hand, maybe we should try talking to the phoenix and finding out what's wrong with her.'

The child thought about it. "There aren't any places I know of to get information on her. All right. We'll try this."

The child took his wizard robe out of its drawer and put it on, glad it didn't bother him. Then he left his room. The hospital was quiet; only two nurses were walking around, and they were busy with other things. X was fine until he walked out the front door.

Monsteropolis was still busy at night. Street lamps flickered, stop lights changed color, vehicles drove or flew by, some pedestrians walked, and noises came from everywhere. Caught in the chaos, X stopped on the sidewalk. It wasn't enough to drive him berserk, but it was enough to freeze him. The adult tried to take over. He managed to get six feet from the building before the curse stopped him too. Overhead, the Ice Dragon flew silently.

"Good evening, young oracle," a voice came from out of his sight.

X nearly screamed, but a warm aura came over him. The thousand small diversions slipped from his mind. He was able to turn and focus on Lulani. "He-hello, master oracle."

His alicorn was glowing like a full moon. "I'm sorry, that's just a temporary cure. But I need your mind at the moment."

"Okay... could you show me the calculation and crest anyhow? Maybe I can find something permanent."

"Maybe." He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. "But you will build resistance to this spell; be aware of that."

"You felt the Ice Dragon too, huh?"

Lulani nodded. "Conventional wisdom says we have slim chances for escape. The design of this city will cause it to freeze over very fast. Needing an unconventional solution, I consulted my stones and they indicated that I would find that solution here. What do you suggest?"

X felt puzzled. "Don't you see where I am? Everyone thinks I'm crazy."

"That doesn't matter to me. All I know is that my sight indicated that your sight would know what to do. I am willing to listen and assist with anything you have in mind, even if others would call it crazy. Sometimes the third eye does not make sense at the moment." He handed over the spell.

He looked it over. "The Ice Dragon is not a dragon. She's a phoenix."

Puzzled, Lulani looked to the sky. "A phoenix? I've never heard of such a creature."

"It's an immortal bird of fire. It burns itself to become well; that may be why some places go suddenly. She tries to heal herself, but winds up freezing the nearby area."

"Bird of fire... and we've been calling her the Ice Dragon?"

"She isn't well, like me." X looked critically at the crest. "Hey, maybe that's it. Lulani, I have to go talk to her, but I can't talk to her as she is. So maybe if we cast this spell and a healing spell over her... oh, but she's extremely powerful. I'm not sure the two of us could manage."

Lulani tapped his cheek, thinking, then looked over the crest he drew. "You know, in order to cast large scale spells, wizards often band together in a powerful location. The city of Monsteropolis is ideal for these large scale spells because its walls are in a pentagram."

"And you can overlay two crests to form a hybrid spell. I think this one would hybridize well with Fairy Cure. But how will we get enough wizards?"

"The City Guard. Let me call them. We will..." he looked around, "we will go to that drug store and get a road map of the city. While I call, you start grafting the two equations together. You can manage that, right?"

"Sure, now that I'm not going to be distracted by every little thing."

* * *

February 27  
Monsteropolis City Guard Headquarters

David Cain was on the late shift tonight, due to several office personnel calling in sick. He was examining a homicide case that had been passed up to him. It was a tricky riddle and he examined every detail found thus far.

His cell phone buzzed. Hoping it was someone he could shift off to another, he answered, "David Cain of Monsteropolis City Guard, who is this?"

"Lulani, sir."

The tone of the oracle's voice was serious, reminding him of the day Roger was healed. Last year, he would have shifted the call, but things had changed. "What's your business this time of night?"

"I want you to clear the shield's records and rescan the city."

"Okay." He went to the lab computer and put in his password to do so. "It's scheduled to do that at noon tomorrow."

"That will be too late."

"It shouldn't need clearing unless... there's a kink in the system? Some water magic."

"The ice rune of the water element, specifically."

The scan came up. The shields were gone. Completely gone, all twelve of them. And all magic in the city had shifted to the water element, specifically the ice rune. That could only mean the Ice Dragon was in city limits. "Did you not catch this in time?" He tried to keep his voice low and calm. A panic was the worst thing that could happen now.

"I have learned recently that the Ice Dragon is truly mad. Thus, no prophecy or formula can foretell her movements."

"There isn't much time. It'd take too long to get the Snow Patrol's attention, and if any major evacuation effort happens, she'll be startled enough to attack."

"I have a potential solution. It may not..." he paused. David heard someone in the background talking. It sounded oddly like a child. "It won't kill the Ice Dragon, but it may get her out of the city and allow the shields to be brought back up. We need your assistance."

"All right. I'll get you anything I can manage. Just tell me what you need."

"Sixty-four magic users. By the time you gather them, my peer and I will have things sorted out."

"Sixty-four magic... all right, I'll make calls. What's your number?"

"I'll call you."

* * *

St. Jude's Psychiatric Hospital

'Rock, wake up.'

Rock got up. He'd been sleeping lightly during his stay, just in case X called about some night terror. But it was Blues this time, calling telepathically. The connection was as clear and strong as it used to be. He smiled. It was so good to be normal again. 'What is it?'

'Call me on your com; we'll talk that way.'

He did so. The first voice he heard was not Blues, though. It was Forte, sounding like he'd been woken up too and was trying not to sound cross. "What is it this time of night?"

"There's been a sudden shift and spike in magic," Blues explained.

Rock heard it in his brother's voice and felt it in his brother's emotions. He went to the window and cast a detection spell. It came up positive. "The Ice Dragon is in the city."

"The Ice Dragon?" Star said, shocked.

"That can't be good, not with the city's design," Sonya commented.

Blues said, "It's akin to a disaster. I'm sensing her in Central Park. If she attacks from there, anything magical will be amplified."

"And she wasn't amplified when she overtook Kykital," Sonya said.

Forte asked, "How did she get in? These shields are among the toughest in the world to crack."

"I won't ask how you came upon that knowledge," Blues said, "but yes, this city's shields are rated as the strongest in the world. And now they're gone, just like that."

"I wonder if she came because of the boys," Rock said. His com unit beeped. "Hang on, I've got another call."

"Right," Blues said.

Rock switched channels. "This is Rock."

"It's David. Listen, Rock, I know you're off, but we have an emergency."

"I've noticed."

"Good, I can keep this short. We have a plan and we need every magic user we can get at Headquarters."

"If you hang on a minute, I've got Blues on the line."

"Great,"

"I've also got a Snow Patrol sorcerer, Star Guise, and his wife Sonya who's an Elf mage. And... a friend who's a warlock. Eldritch."

"That would be great. Confirm with them quick."

"Hold." He switched back. "I'm back."

"Was that X?" Blues asked.

"I expect he would notice," Sonya said.

"No, that was City Guard. They have a plan that requires magic users. If you're in, I need to know and you need to be at Headquarters as soon as possible."

"Right, we'll come." Blues paused. "We all will: me, Star, Sonya, and Forte."

"Good. See you then." He switched back and informed David.

He grabbed his cloak and left his room. But he paused for a moment outside of X's room. X was bound to notice this, he was that sensitive. And Rock had promised to be here at all times... no, this was an emergency. X was safest here. Although really, when it came to the Ice Dragon, nowhere near her was safe.

Rock recalled X saying that their best chance of canceling the death curse was for him and Zero to kill the Dragon. If this plan worked out right, things might go horribly wrong. Maybe he should inform David.

He had to leave. Rock recorded a message for X, apologizing and explaining why he was gone.

* * *

February 27  
MCGH

Within half an hour, David had sixty-four magic users at Headquarters. He had to reassure Rock that they weren't going to kill the Ice Dragon this time. For some reason, the hero and his group did not want the Dragon to die at this moment. Especially not the individual Rock introduced as a forest ranger, Eldritch Shadetree.

Just as he called for attention from the crowd, Lulani arrived. He handed everyone a piece of paper with street directions and crest spell lines. "Don't worry, you'll have something you can handle. This is a major crest using the city layout for the grid. You know the deal: go to your first point, cast the first line. Go to the second point, cast the second line. Continue until your lines are complete. When they are complete, stay where you are until I say otherwise. We should be safe so long as you stay. David and I will be coordinating." Lulani handed David the master guide. "We'll handle the trigger. Just watch for outside influences."

* * *

Central Park

Lulani was handling the radio. He and Sir Cain were keeping track of which lines were complete. X sat on a park bench on the outside of Central Park. About a hundred yards in front of him, he saw the phoenix resting. So far, she hadn't done anything about them.

X pulled out the paper that had Lulani's spell written on it. Numb Block was a temporary curse; it reduced the sensitivity of all senses. On normal people, it made them feel disconnected to the world, like Lenzaphine had done to X. But on X, it reduced his over-sensitivity to normal levels.

However, Numb Block was already wearing off. X noticed the roughness of the wooden bench, the wetness of the snow, and the crackles of the radio. The Guardians' voices came to him increasingly as noise. And the cold wind sent needles into any part of his exposed skin. He did meditations to keep Numb Block in power.

'They all believe in my plan,' child X thought-said to the adult. 'It's so strange.'

'You know the truth, that you won't always be believed. But it often happens that when things matter, people take notice.'

He looked over at the Ice Dragon. 'Can I really do this? Normal conversation can drive me berserk now. I have to negotiate with an immortal being who's cursed my whole world.'

'It must be done. Don't think about if you can do it. People's lives are at stake, and something must be done.'

The child tensed. It was hard to think of that. All the nice people here who had tried to help him and Zero were now depending on him to save their lives. And he wasn't sure if he could.

'If that's too difficult, just think of yourself and Zero. If you wish to keep your family, you must do this.'

'That's right. My life is better than it was at the Tower. Zero's is much better.'

There was a rapping on the wood. X looked up at Lulani.

The unicorn reploid nodded. "It's your turn now."

"R-right." X got off the bench and looked at the Ice Dragon phoenix. He hesitated.

"When things count, one must do what is right. Even if it frightens one."

"Yes, it must be done." X walked into the park.

"I am watching," Lulani called after.

* * *

39th Street and Willow

Rock and Forte wound up on the same crossing of the same streets. There was chatter on the radio, wondering what this plan entailed. "It's a Life and Elf spell hybridized with a Life and Shadow spell," David said. "I'm not sure what the hybrid crest will do."

"Can you send the master crest to me?" Star asked. "I'm a sorcerer trained in crest deconstruction."

"It's just the final rune, no work algorithms on it."

"He has deconstructed from less," Sonya said.

Forte felt slightly nervous. He and his old rival were only a few feet from each other, which used to mean they were fighting. But now both were waiting patiently, quietly, for some spellwork they weren't in control of. It was strange. Rock had welcomed him into his home, but they had avoided talking to each other so far. Forte had gone so far as to use the east stairs to avoid Rock's room on the west side of the house.

As nothing kept happening, Forte turned down his com link. "Do you really not mind me, living in your house?"

In response, Rock turned down his com link. "It is strange with you there. But really, I owe you a lot."

"You do?"

Rock nodded and smiled. "I've been cursed for over three decades. I had actually given up on finding a cure, although Blues was still looking. But then X came to me and undermined the curse. I'm a free soul now, thanks to him. And he wouldn't be with me if you hadn't intervened, many times."

"I couldn't forget about X. Curses are bad enough, but to be under one so powerful when one is so young, I just had to help him."

"I want to help Zero too," Rock said, honestly.

"Thank you."

"Just so you know: he may act all tough and macho for his age, but he's just as lost and hurt as X. We've been doing everything we can to make him feel safe and happy too. And if making him happy means letting you live there too, I don't mind one bit."

"I have changed so much because of my son, and yours."

"We must save them at all costs. You agree?"

"Absolutely."

Rock offered, and they shook on it.

Forte looked at him curiously. "Does this mean we're friends now?"

He chuckled. "Perhaps."

Forte turned up his radio again in time to hear, "Hey Rock, Eldritch, can I give you guys a formula for ID?"

"Sure," Forte replied. "What is it?"

Star gave them the formula.

"Numb Block," they replied at once.

* * *

February 27  
Central Park

X circled around the Ice Dragon until he was approaching her from the front. He did not want to threaten her or make her feel nervous. Since he was overly nervous, he decided to use that to decide what to do.

She was lying in an open spot of the park. While X approached her, he noticed her feathers were loose and some had fallen out. She might try burning herself in minutes, or hours, or days. He had to get her out while she could still fly away.

He stopped ten feet from her. She raised her head and looked at him. His power core picked up the pace. X ran his tongue across his lips. " _Lady_ ," he said in the dragon tongue.

" _Child, go away,"_ she replied in the dragon tongue.

Good, they had a common language. " _Lady, I need to speak with you."_

" _I don't need to speak with you."_

" _I've started a healing spell. You must be able to feel it."_

" _What's so important to you that you organized that many people? Don't think I haven't noticed your spell. I just don't feel like bothering with you."_

" _I know you're not a dragon. I know you're a phoenix."_

She sat up. " _Finally, somebody with some sense. Maybe I'll talk to you."_

" _I know that several months ago, you met another false dragon, this one of fire. I know you fought him and you were equals. I know that this Fire Dragon will be awakened soon, and he will seek to kill you."_

She growled. " _What have I done to that little spark to make him wish to kill me?"_

Cursed the whole world with winter, X thought. But he didn't want to insult her. _"Nothing. His father made him mad, so that he would kill you."_

" _And what do you have to do with this plot?"_

" _I was there with my friend, remember? The dark ones intend to sacrifice us to summon him. The date is less than a month away, the vernal equinox."_

" _Oh, so you're one of those children."_ She stretched her neck out to look closer at him. She had a swan-like head and neck, X noticed. " _Strange. I didn't recognize the death magic on you. Normally I would."_

" _I could try to help you, but I need some questions answered. Will you answer them?"_

" _I'll consider it."_

" _What's your name? I'm X Light."_

" _X Light... I am Rihanna."_

" _Are you from this world?"_

" _No."_

" _How did you come here?"_

She yawned. _"I don't know. Strong magic brought me here, but strong magic hasn't gotten me back yet."_

" _Are you the only one from your world here?"_

" _Yes. Your world is pitiful. Not another phoenix to be found."_

" _Are you depressed?"_

She glared at him. _"What sort of question is that?"_

" _From what I understand, phoenixes are creatures of fire and life, not ice and death. For you to be this way, something must be wrong with you."_

" _Little child doll,"_ she growled, " _your world is the bearer of evils, not mine. I had a wonderful home. I was happy and loved by all people. Now I'm here, and everyone seems to think that I'm terrible and evil. Nothing I can do will allow me to go home. Your world deserves to be frozen to death."_

Her growing anger triggered X's curse. He tried to keep control. But the wind stung his cheeks and made the leaves roar in response. Okay, calm down... he had to calm both of them down. _"Are you lonely?"_

" _I've had enough of your questions!"_ Then she sounded a loud battle cry that echoed through the streets of Monsteropolis.

* * *

Light residence

Zero woke up, shaking. He'd had a nightmare he'd had many times before. There was the black torch and the icy ground. X knelt like the child angel on the death crest. His hair was silver, his armor was frost, and his eyes were strange with ice. Hands clasped to his chest, he looked at Zero in total trust. "Are you here to protect me or to destroy me?"

"To destroy you." And Zero killed X.

Again and again, the dream happened. It came to him so often that Zero felt that if he started the motions, he could enact the scene in life perfectly. It was a horrible feeling.

Zero got up and just about ran upstairs. But while his father's door was open, Forte wasn't there. It looked like he'd left in a hurry. Zero gripped the doorway. "Dad?"

No response.

Zero walked back down the stairs, slowly. What was going on? Had Forte abandoned him? He tried to call, hoping he was up. But the line was blocked. X and Rock were both gone. Zero felt very lonely, in the dark and quiet house.

And then he heard footsteps on the third floor. It was probably one of the Guises, but Zero peered in the hall. Oddly enough, it was, "Roll?"

She turned to him. "Zero? What are you doing up?"

He walked up and hugged her. "I had a scary dream, and then my dad was gone."

Roll sat on the floor to be on eye level with him. "Blues is gone too. So are Star and Sonya. I heard them leave nearly an hour ago. But they didn't say anything, and..."

"I can't even call my dad."

"The others have their lines blocked too. It could mean they're busy with some emergency."

"Is my dad gonna come back?"

She smiled. "I'm pretty sure he will."

Then a loud cry interrupted their talk. It sounded like a falcon going into battle. It sounded familiar to Zero. His eyes widened. "That's the Ice Dragon."

Roll put her arms around Zero again. "I hope they're okay."

* * *

February 27  
19th and Dalton Streets

Star heard the Ice Dragon and it froze his blood and oil lines.

It was nearly a year ago, but it seemed like just today. Star had heard that sound. Everyone had heard that sound. Even the Wily clansmen who had decided to attack the caravan to steal the Angels of the Virtues stopped. And then the Dragon descended on them, and the battle turned to sheer chaos.  
He and Neko had been guarding the truck with the Angels inside. Neko grabbed him and dove under the truck. "Let's make sure they don't get them and she doesn't get us."

"Neko?"

"We can survive out here until a rescue squad comes."

"But you'd usually be all for attacking them..."

Neko (Was it Neko?) grabbed his shoulder. "Get a grip on yourself, Star."

But nearly seven years before that, he and Neko had been swarmed by Shadow Imps. Neko took his sword and held it out front, protecting his front and Star's right and back sides. With his tail, he protected his back and Star's left. That tail, which belonged more on a squirrel than a cat reploid, was capable of reflecting spells and plasma fire. "Get that spell of daylight," Neko had said. "I'll spread it."

But when he was with Neko under the truck, his friend had a long blond ponytail, not a yellow-tan squirrel tail.

So what happened to Neko?

"Star?" Sonya's voice reached through his shadowy memory. "Are you okay?"

"I wish you were here," Star replied.

"Get a grip on yourself," she... he said.

But the confusion between times caused Star to slip into shadows. He bolted from under the truck. Neko ran after him. There was a blank in Star's memory, and then...

One of the Wily clansmen was a centaur. This one had wicker circles under his hooves, so he wouldn't sink in the snow. He examined the only two captives. "Throw them in Shadow Palace. The Shadow Master has requested this one."

* * *

39th Street and Willow

Forte and Rock heard the battle cry. "That can't be good," Rock said.

There were cruel giggles behind them.

They both turned. There were only shadows. Forte looked for any clues and spotted several shadows out of place. He also noticed Rock tap his eyes.

"David? We have Shadow Imps here."

"The trigger hasn't been set," Lulani said. "Casters need to stay in their positions."

"Stay in your immediate area, but don't hesitate to defend yourselves," David answered. "Lulani, I've got several monsters slipping into city."

"It shouldn't be long now. Can you send other Guardsmen?"

"Doing so now."

Rock cast a homing spell, which meant he could see the Imps. He hit seven and killed six. Forte bit his tongue on a curse word. He hadn't expected Shadow creatures, so hadn't brought along the eyedrops that would allow him to see them. He prepared a spell to mimic daylight to drive the Shadows into the open.

* * *

Cain residence

Sigma and Sheldon were supposed to be asleep. But they were up late, working on a holo-battle army to take down Roger's current army. "We've got to get a forest setting," Sigma said, setting one up and examining it for use.

"Why? You've got warlocks and black wizards. And forests are hard to fight in."

"But Roger has a lot of gunners and spellbows. A forest will cut down on their effectiveness."

"Oh, I see. But what if he wins the roll for location pick?"

"Then we'll need those..."

A bird's battle cry interrupted their plotting. They froze for a second, stunned. Then they ran into the hall, to a large window that overlooked Central Park. There, in the center, was a large icy bird-dragon. She looked furious.

"Is that really the Ice Dragon?" Sigma said, in awe. "She seems smaller than I imagined her."

"My dad says if you can hear her like that, you're doomed," Sheldon replied, scared.

Zeta and Roger came into the hall. "What's going on?" Zeta asked.

"She's there," Sigma said, pointing her out to his brother. "Can you see her?"

"It's the Ice Dragon, right here."

Roger squinted out the window. "Something's there. I can't quite make it out."

"Is dad fighting her? He was on late shift."

Zeta tapped her ear. "His line is blocked. He must be doing something against her."

* * *

Central Park

The scream was painful to X. The wind howled in response and dug its cold claws deeper under his robes. But for that moment, it blocked out everything else. I must stop her immediately, X thought.

He finished the calculations for the hybrid spell. Normally, a spell of this caliber would knock him unconscious, maybe even kill him. But since he was drawing on the combined auras of the sixty-four Guardians, Lulani, and himself, the spell went through his body and soul safely. He triggered the crest and focused it by calling, "Lose your feathers of ice and regain your feathers of fire, Phoenix Rihanna!"

Rihanna called out again, but this time in startled fear. She attempted to take off. But since she was molting, it was hard work. The magic surrounding them lifted both her and X off the ground.

And then the hybrid crest touched Rihanna's soul.

* * *

February 27  
Central Park

"It shouldn't be long now," Lulani said over the radio. The spell had not been triggered. "Can you send other Guardsmen?"

"Doing so now," David called back.

Lulani watched until he felt a demonic aura approach. A trio of virka had appeared in the park. Just as he noticed, an explosion of light came from X and the Ice Dragon. "Spell triggered, but I've got virka in the park!"

David dispatched the casters rapidly. Blues Light appeared in the park, located the demons, and went to fight them. Lulani twitched his tail. He'd never been in an actual battle before, and had never trained for the possibility. He cast Ice Guard over himself, hoping that was useful. After dealing with their Imps, Rock and Eldritch teleported to the park. Rock went to assist Blues; Eldritch hung back to protect Lulani.

Lulani was a matchmaker, an oracle talented in relationships of all sorts. The first thing he noticed about those around him was the relationship between their auras. There was an unusual tension between these three. They were working together now, but it felt like a recent teaming up. Rock and Eldritch were particularly stressed. It made Lulani think of a team built to survive a sinking ship or a similar tragedy. It was working now, but past events might make them turn on each other.

If he'd been at the mall, at his job, Lulani would have called the three over and encouraged them to take a long discussion and stone reading session. But as it was, he could only hope their team didn't splinter now.

What did splinter was the air, with thousands of white aura lines. Lulani, and everyone within sight of the park, turned to see what had done this. What they saw was a beautiful bird in the air, roughly the size of a horse in body. The Ice Dragon was not a dragon at all.

* * *

The hybrid crest didn't work. Rihanna was fully feathered again, but with silver and white feathers that glowed like the full moon. The ice on her body did not melt.

" _I'm sorry, Rihanna,"_ X said.

She sang a few notes and sounded much calmer. " _It's all right, holy child. You did what you could. Your spell wasn't strong enough."_

" _But that was the strongest spell I've ever cast, and I didn't even pass out this time."_

" _You'd need something much stronger, like true Phoenix Fire."_ She sighed. _"But I fear you couldn't find that in this world. You would need knowledge of other worlds, the knowledge of those who brought me here."_

" _Those that brought you..."_ X recalled a book. " _I might just know where to find that knowledge. I'll look. Hopefully, we have time."_

" _X Light, I cannot recall your friend right off, and I never saw your kind in my world. But I can tell the sacrifice of you would be as evil as any other child. May I ask some questions of you?"_

" _If you leave our city in peace."_

" _I will leave your cities alone, as long as I can keep my mind clear. Have I truly killed others?"_

X nodded. " _You froze entire cities. Your madness ran deep."_

" _I don't recall any of it. This has been like some terrible nightmare. Now, what do you plan to do about your death curse?"_

" _I don't know. When we thought you were a dragon, we thought we had to kill you. But knowing the truth, I'm not certain."_

" _If you can bring my fire back, I can revoke any death curse. I'm hesitant to do so now. My magic has been corrupted and I might worsen things."_

" _I'll look for that book. Only, I was forbidden to even look at it."_

Rihanna made an indignant response. " _If they would sacrifice you, you need not care about their rules. Were they the ones to destabilize your soul?"_

" _Yes. I had Pa... I had a potent fear curse, only it's evolved into a hysteria curse."_

" _Then do what you must to escape their reach."_ She paused. _"They've destabilized me too. I'd best leave now, while I am of mind to do so. I'll reset those shields I cut off to get here. I feel I can do that right. May we meet in peace, X Light."_

X nodded. " _May we meet again in peace, Rihanna."_

She cooed and flew into the sky.

Now dissipating, the magic that held X off the ground brought him back. But when he glanced down, he saw a red crest on the sidewalk. The death crest. A silver light enveloped him. He thought he'd been doing well, but this did not promise to be a good sign.

* * *

"The... the shields are back online," David Cain said. "You didn't say the crest would do that."

"I didn't know it would do that," Lulani replied.

"But your plan did work. Th..."

"You don't have me to thank for that." The oracle cut off the channel. "Rock, would you come with me a moment? Just you."

"All right."

Sonya's voice came over the main channel. "Eldritch, would you come to 19th and Dalton? Star's not speaking."

"I'll be there right away," he replied before vanishing.

Blues shrugged. "I'll go help them." He teleported.

Rock was going to thank Lulani for getting the Ice Dragon away safely, but the oracle spoke first. "You, your brother, and that new friend of yours ought to come see me. The relationship between you three is a box of matches, ready to burst into flames at the wrong moments."

Are all oracles this unsettling? Rock couldn't help but think that. "We'll figure things out."

"At least consider my offer and know that I'm willing to compromise on payment in a situation as potentially damaging as yours. Especially since," he twitched his tail, "I'm considering an offer to train X to hone his third eye, if he's willing."

"I'll keep it in mind." They were in the park, walking towards where the Ice Dragon had been. "How did you know a hybrid of Numb Block and Fairy Cure would get her out? And was that her I saw for a moment? That silver bird?"

"That was her."

"I've never seen a bird like that. Rocs are large, but much larger than she was, and..."

"She is a phoenix."

"A what?" Rock looked ahead and spotted something. He went to pick it up. "This is X's cloak... was he here? He's not supposed to leave his room alone. What happened?"

Lulani frowned. "He came when needed. But now... step back."

Rock nearly questioned that, but spotted the red crest below his feet. It was that death crest. A silver light grew from it, and then X appeared.

His eyes were closed, he was kneeling, and his hands were like the child angel's in the crest. His hair was longer, five inches past his neck, and had turned silver. He wore armor that looked like heavy frost. He had small icicle wings, like the sort Sonya had made for his Halloween costume. His lips were blue and his skin was pale, like frozen victims of the snowfield. X dropped his hands and opened his eyes. They were like glistening ice crystals, or diamonds.

Rock knelt down. "X, what happened to you?"

"That hybrid I made wasn't strong enough." He looked down at his hands, pale and clammy, with spikes of white ice for armor. "And I've been marked to die."

* * *

February 27  
Light residence

Zero sat in the entryway, fiddling with his loose hair. Many people were in the first floor entrance area. Roll was trying to keep everyone from panicking. But everyone had heard the Ice Dragon and nobody knew what to do.

Then Blues opened the door. Sonya came in next, leading Star, and Forte followed. Roll went to her brother. "What's going on? Do we need to evacuate?"

He shook his head. "Nope. The Ice Dragon is gone."

"Did you manage to defeat it?" someone asked.

"We're not certain; we still need to review the situation. But she's gone and our shields are back in place. We're safe for now."

With that, people began to go back to their rooms, back to sleep. Forte said, "Maybe you should make that statement to the whole city, since the people trust you so much."

"Good idea. Let me call Cain." He stepped into the office.

"Can you help me get him upstairs?" Sonya asked Roll. "He got affected."

"I won't slip into shadows," Star said, although he sounded dazed.

"Be strong, Star." Roll helped her and the three of them went up the stairs.

"Did you chase the Dragon away, dad?" Zero asked.

Forte sat next to him. "I was helping. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but I was a little nervous. But, um..."

"What is it?"

"I had a bad dream and woke up before everyone else."

Forte put his arm around Zero's shoulders. "I'm sorry I wasn't here."

"It's okay. But this dream, I've had it before. The Fire Dragon makes me kill X, and then consumes my soul." Forte appeared to be taking it seriously, so Zero gave a full description of the dream, down to every detail he could remember of the Ice Dragon Armor X wore. "The scary thing is, I feel the Fire Dragon will try to make the dream real, only I don't know when it'll happen."

Forte squeezed his shoulders. "That's terrible. You know, I've been trying to live a quiet life now, but if I had a chance at battling that Fire Dragon for you, I'd take any risk."

Zero smiled. "I'm trying to be stronger than him. He's only a half soul."

"I have your mother's letter." He pulled out an envelope.

"Really?" Zero looked at how his mother wrote his name. It seemed special. "Great!"

"I was going to give it tomorrow; I got it late today. But if it will help now..."

Someone came down the stairs. Surprisingly, it was Rock. "Where is everyone?"

"The guests all went to bed, Roll is helping Star and Sonya, and Blues is talking to Sir Cain. Why?"

Rock stepped off the stairs. "Oh good, it would have been okay... I brought X home."

"You did?" Zero interrupted. "How is he?"

"He's nervous about what happened tonight, but not as bad as I thought he'd be. You can go visit him. Just remember, no touching, sudden motions or loud noises."

"I know." Zero put his mother's letter in the pocket of his pajamas, and ran upstairs. It felt better that X was home again. He just wished he didn't have to treat his friend differently.

He stopped short of X's bedroom door. It was almost shut. He knocked softly, as he'd been instructed to do at the hospital. "X, do you mind me coming in?"

There was no answer. Zero came in anyways. The room looked empty. Maybe Rock had put X in his room. He checked this bedroom out, just in case.

"X? You okay?" Zero walked around the bed and found X hiding on the other side.

He has his arms wrapped around his knees and his head resting on his hands. He was wearing the Ice Dragon Armor from Zero's dream. Except for one detail that was different, the cherubic wings, it was that armor. Zero's systems seemed to freeze just looking at him.

The fact that X was wearing that armor invited him to act upon that dream. The Fire Dragon wanted to be free now, proper deadlines be damned. Child Zero felt terrified and had to concentrate on not screaming. Adult Zero did his best to keep the Dragon's half-soul from doing anything. However, even the mysterious shield seemed to be strained in this struggle.

'I don't want that dream to come true,' the child thought.

'He's weaker than you,' the adult reminded him. 'He's not whole.'

'I'm tired of you constraining me,' the Fire Dragon growled. 'I'll show you who's in control.'

Zero looked down and spotted the death crest in red below his feet. A golden light blinded him for a moment. When his vision cleared, his pajamas were on the floor. Now he was wearing an enchanted armor too, one that mimicked the Ice Dragon Armor.

The Fire Dragon Armor appeared to be constructed of red and gold flames. The flame points were still, rather like the frost spikes. Zero glanced at a mirror in the room and saw he too had cherubic wings, made of golden flames. Two red ribbons with golden accents came out of his blond hair, fluttering as if they had minds of their own. And his lips were dark blood red instead of their normal light pink.

Coming out of his thoughts, X looked up. Zero looked back. X saw eyes of living fire looking right at his eyes of diamond ice. They stared at each other for a minute.

There was a knock. Rock had told Forte about the strange armor of ice, and Forte had seen the significance of it. "Boys?"

They screamed at each other's forms. Zero tried to run out of the room and ran right into his father. Rock slipped in to kneel by X. Forte picked his son up. "Zero..."

"We're gonna die, aren't we?" Zero burst into tears.

Forte held Zero tightly, not sure what to say. His eyes crossed Rock's for a moment. It was a strange feeling, seeing his sorrows and fears reflected in the eyes of someone he had hated for so long. They were caught in the same tragedy.

Forte took Zero up to his room. Rock stayed by X's side.


	29. The Forbidden Book

February 28, XX55  
Light residence

Rock came into the inn's office. "Do you mind? I have to see this."

"What is it?" Roll asked, noticing he must have dressed in a hurry.

"David called me up, said it was bad. A message sent to everyone in the world."

"That's some cheeky advertiser," she said, trying to be lighthearted.

But then the message played. It was a video message from a young looking man with white hair. The symbol of Wily's forces was on the bottom left of the screen. Roll felt a chill even before he spoke.

"Greetings, people of this planet... Earth. My name is Ikari Domino and I wish to announce a magnificent breakthrough. There is a way to end this accursed winter, but it requires a special ceremony, a sacrifice to save our world.

"Somewhere among you are two reploids that the Ice Dragon has marked as powerful youths. She intends on using their powers to inflict an attack on the world far greater than anything she has done before. Her mark has appeared on them in the past day, as plain as anyone can see. But I have evidence that shows if these children are killed, she will be stopped. If they are sacrificed appropriately, then this long winter will be over.

"These children are known as X and Zero Light. People of Earth, you must bring these children, on March 21st, to the World Peace Center for the ceremony. Bring them to me on the first day of spring, and it shall be so. You have my word on this."

* * *

Unfortunately, the strange armors didn't go away. Zero woke up to find he was still in his. His blankets felt warm, but nothing had been burnt or scorched. No, not his blankets. He was in his father's bed. Forte was fast asleep, probably tired from getting rid of the Ice Dragon last night.

He spent a few minutes trying to take the armor off. He was certain there had to be a latch, or buttons, or something that allowed him to take it off. His base armor had a hidden switch that released it. But the enchanted armor was solidly on him. Not even the flaming ribbons would be taken out of his hair.

Giving up on it for now, Zero spotted his pajamas and his mother's letter on a chair by the door. He went to get the letter; it looked like no one had opened it. Maybe it would make him feel better, especially if she said who she was. He opened it carefully, not wanting to damage the precious letter inside.

'Dear Zero:

'It's wonderful to hear from you! I'm so glad to know that you're safe and alive. Some time ago, I found that you weren't where you were supposed to be and it upset me a great deal. I'm not sure what happened, although I suspect your father had something to do with it. I wish he would have told me he was taking you. He can be a silly man sometimes, but I still love him.

'The people in your home sound interesting. I wish I could meet them all. Especially your friend X. It's always great to have a close friend that you can trust completely. But don't let your father and Blues train you too much. It's good knowing how to fight the bad guys, but you've also got to know how to get along with the other good people.

'I would love to come see you and meet your friends. But I'm afraid there's some problems. Nothing wrong with you, my dear son, never blame yourself for the troubles your father and I are facing. It's just that some people I know could get very angry if they learn of what happened, so I must be careful. I don't want to hurt anyone involved.

'I'll try to answer some of your questions, although I'm not all that interesting. I do housekeeping for some nice people. I love gardening and I would love to see your mold terrarium. I've never grown anything like that, but it sounds oddly pretty.

'You can write me whenever you want. I'll treasure anything you send.'

At the bottom, it looked like she thought of signing it, but then just put, 'Your mother loves you.'

Zero felt a little disappointed in that she hadn't written nearly as much as he did. He felt mostly disappointed in that she still wouldn't say who she was. Even though he kind of understood what was going on, couldn't they just tell him? He would keep it a secret from everyone. Well, except maybe X, but X would know to never say a word of Zero's mother.

But what she had written felt sincere. She did love him, he thought. He wondered if he should go ask X if those feelings were correct, or if he could glean anything unwritten from that page. Zero got off the bed, intending on going to X's room.

No. X had those creepy eyes now, and Zero didn't want to see him like that.

He looked over the first paragraph again. She had no idea of the real trouble he was in. He hadn't written about that. If he told her, would she decide to come see him despite whatever problems other people had with this? If she were here to comfort and be with him, somehow this whole mess would be a lot better. Zero was certain of that.

* * *

March 10  
Light residence

The two boys stayed home from school. X couldn't go to school in his berserker condition, and the strange armors would not go away. They found it hard to be around each other, since the armor on one reflected the greatest nightmare of the other. Even if they managed to meet, everyone was keeping a close eye on them. Roll had even closed down her inn for the month, helping those with reservations stay at other hotels and inns. So some adult always knew where both were, usually within eyesight.

One evening, Zero had just managed to get to sleep when someone nudged him. "Zero, get up."

He opened his eyes sleepily. It was X. The Fire Dragon growled and gave Zero a piercing desire to kill X for waking him up.

Zero sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Sorry about that. He slips out of his bonds sometimes."

"That's okay, I'm sorry for waking you. But we barely have time." He held out the keys to Shadow Palace.

Zero looked at them. The skull key looked particularly threatening tonight. "Are you sure that's a good idea now? Wouldn't the shadows know these armors?"

"They would. As since their master is an ally of Wily and Domino, they will probably try to fight us. But that's not the most dangerous part. Not even the fact that I intend on going to Ikari Tower if things don't work out right on the first try."

That woke him fully up. "You can't be serious. After they tried to kidnap you, we're going to the Tower again?"

"The most dangerous part is that I'm going alone, with just my adult as a shadow."

"You can't do that! I'm going to tell your dad." Zero got out of bed.

"You can't talk to him," X said. "You can't talk to anybody else. I put them all to sleep and nothing will wake them until I speak the word."

Child Zero froze up. This was nothing like he knew his friend to be like.

Adult Zero asked, "Have you gone mad? What's so important that you're taking that many risks?"

X clutched the notebook he had in hand. "It's the sacrificial rune, Zero. We have to break it. And while it's very nice of everyone to try, they aren't going to get anywhere. I saw Star's deconstruction efforts, and they were impressive given what he knows. But there's this book in the Tower that has the full diagram of equations to this crest. And that book is the only place I know for certain of to find the spell that might undo everything. I didn't like putting everyone else to sleep either, but they're not going to let me find that book, and they wouldn't know where to look, not even Forte. I know exactly where that book is; I've seen it. So I must go."

"But why can't I come with you? I mean, my adult could go too."

X shook his head. "He can't. He's helping you with the Fire Dragon. As it's getting so close to the attempt to summon the dragon, he must stay with you at all times. And even for the short time I'll let you in Shadow Palace, there's a chance shadows will find us and attempt to drive one or both of us berserk."

"And how are you going to not go berserk?"

"I'm under Numb Block, but I figure it only gives me fifteen minutes of protection. And you're going to blindfold me."

"Blindfold?"

"I go berserk with too much sensory input. It's logical that if I block my senses, it reduces the effect of my curse. That's how Numb Block works."

Zero took the blindfold X was holding and looked it over. "I don't know. Can you do this?"

"Somebody has to do something. In the end, if we fail, we'll just die, but think of everyone else. They're going to be terribly upset if we die, and my plan will let us live."

"I guess you're right." Zero tied the piece of thick cloth over X's eyes. "Does that block out enough?"

"I can't see anything; that's great. I'm going to block my hearing too."

"X!"

"You'll have to guide me." He stuck earplugs in, then reached out for Zero's arm. Grabbing it, he waited.

He's blindfolded like someone facing a firing squad, Zero thought before he could stop it. 'He's putting an awful lot of trust in me,' the child thought-spoke, 'but I don't trust myself.'

'We have to trust that he knows what he's doing,' the adult replied. 'He's right; time is running out.'

Zero took the keys and got them to the Dream Mirror's room in three minutes. He had to walk carefully down the stairs, so X didn't trip them both. Once at the mirror, he placed X's hand onto the surface. The adult's shadow body awoke and stepped out.

"All my senses are working fine," he reported. "Thank you; we can handle it from here."

"Be very careful," Zero said.

Adult X picked up his child's body and walked Zero to the door. "We do have a safer place we'll search first. Well, relatively safer. If that doesn't work out, just wait for us. You be careful too." He used the gold key. "Open to Zero's bedroom."

The door obediently led them back to where they started. "Don't do anything stupid," the adult said.

"We won't," adult X replied. He shut the door.

Child Zero immediately turned and opened his door again. It opened to the hallway. He shivered. "I don't like this."

'Neither do I.'

They waited in the dark, in the silence.

* * *

March 10  
Shadow Palace

Neither X was certain if the silver key command, "Take me to the library" would get anywhere. But if there was a library here, it had to be enchanted, so there might be something worth the time. And the silver key did lead them to another room.

This one was covered in marbles. A chaotic mix of all sorts of marbles covered the floor, domed roof, and single circular wall. The wall was made up of twenty-one rings, each with twelve handles and twelve slots. After a dizzying change of direction, adult X climbed into the library dome with the child.

The librarian uncoiled itself. It was a fifteen foot long three-headed snake. Its white and blue scales seemed like candy cane material. Hissing in trio, the librarian snake studied their scent. "Strangers... but book lovers, we deduce."

"Certainly," the adult replied. "We come in search of some specialized books and hoped you might have something."

"Make a request."

"We wish to see the book Ikari Domino forbade X Light to see."

It hissed long. "Hold please." Its tail reached into a lower slot and pulled out a large, thick book. It skimmed through the library catalogue. "We do not have that book. Sorry. Make a request."

"We next wish to see a scientific or mystical book on phoenixes, but it must be from Rihanna's world."

"Rihanna. Hold please." It skimmed the catalogue. "We have sixty-seven items from that world. Specify."

"We are looking for the spell of Phoenix Fire."

"Phoenix Fire." It looked at the page. "There is a best fit. Hold please."

The three-headed snake began spinning the rings. Some went clockwise, some went counterclockwise. The snake caught rings from the bottom up, then reached its tail into the fifteenth ring's fourth slot. Hissing in satisfaction, it handed the book over.

"Thank you, master librarian."

All six of its eyes glared. "No books leave this library. Read there." It pointed out a green armchair that hadn't been there before.

"We won't take it." The adult sat in the chair, putting the child in his lap so he didn't directly feel the chair material. 'I have a book from Rihanna's world.'

'Okay, let's check it.' The child used the adult's eyes to see.

This book had a lot of information about phoenixes, but with glaring problems. All of the spells were given in rhyming couplet format, not in runic calculation format. And that world recognized only ten elements of magic, not forty-nine. It had the spell of Phoenix Fire, including the lengthy list of rare ingredients to prepare the magic for use. X had used a compound potion when he accidentally summoned the alien beast, but this preparation was foreign to him. And the ingredient list included a down feather from a healthy phoenix, impossible to get here.

'We have to go to the Tower now,' the child thought.

'Are you ready?'

'I don't want to go back. But I have to. I think I can.'

'I'm with you.' The adult handed the book back to the librarian. "Thank you for your assistance."

"It's a pleasure to meet those that are well read," the snake replied.

At the library's door, he used the skull key with the command, "Take us to the Master Chambers of Ikari Tower." It was another iffy command. But it too worked.

The hall they entered was a lavish area, made to impress with riches and power. There was beautiful wooden flooring, marble walls, gold leaf mosaics, and all sorts of knickknack fineries, like intricate curling obsidian glass candle holders on the walls. There were ornate wooden chairs with velvet red pillows that had gold buttons. But the one thing it didn't look like was somewhere that someone lived.

Following the child's memory, the adult sought out a small side room. He had only gotten a brief glimpse inside, but even that view of the forbidden book got the child knocked into the wall hard enough to crack one of his ribs. Fortunately at that point, Master Wily had been interested in keeping X whole, so it was healed.

When the memory was strongest, they found the book's room. It was small and bare compared to the rest of this area. It contained the thousand-plus page book held by three titanium chains enchanted to a steel base. There was also a lamp, some chairs, and various bins with large rolls of paper, but the chained book stole all attention.

The child tugged at his blindfold. 'I want to see.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yeah. Like Rihanna said, I shouldn't worry about their rules. This is the one thing he outright forbade me to do. Everything else, he just punished me after I made the mistake.'

'All right. Here you go.' He took off the blindfold.

The child spent a moment just looking at the chained book. The adult pulled a chair up to the pedestal. As the child climbed on, he asked, 'Do you think the chains are there to keep the book from being stolen or from escaping?'

'It might be both.'

'What's it made out of?'

Adult X looked over the brown leathery material. 'I'm not sure we want to know.' He touched the edge to open it.

Red letters appeared on the cover. It simply said, 'Speak'.

The adult responded, "We are looking for Phoenix Fire, or any information on a phoenix."

The book automatically opened to a width of three feet and a length of two feet. It settled at a page titled, 'Instructions on casting either the healing fire of a phoenix or something that closely mimics this force'. The first entry was the couplet and compound potion that was in the book from Rihanna's world. The next entry took the form of a sonnet and used spiced sticks arranged in specific patterns. In fact, fifty-six of the entries were completely useless.

The child put his fingers close to a spell that required a mantra spoken at specific intervals over the period of nine hours. 'How many worlds are there? Or rather, how many worlds do Master Wily and Master Domino know of?'

'At least fifty-seven magical worlds. They must know of Neko and Xenophon's home world, even if it no longer exists. Beyond that, maybe none, maybe many.'

'Does he know of your world?'

'I know there was a mirror of Master Wily, but he was long dead by the time I was activated.'

'What about Ikari?'

'He lives in my time; at least, his mirror does. There, he's a hermit who built Ikari Tower, but not as a dead tree. He built a tree with leaves that produces electrical energy for many cities.'

'Strange. Hey, there! I think this one will work here.'

It was the only spell given as a mathematical formula. It required many arcane and obscure functions, but the adult wasn't able to tell much more. 'Could you cast that or prepare it in time?'

The child studied it. 'I'll have to run some dry numbers through it to see how it works. All the elements are right and it looks functional. And it will require some prep work."

'It will work, then?'

'The problem is, even if you have a theoretically functioning equation, you never know if it will work in practice.' The child tapped a specific function that reminded the adult of imaginary numbers in calculus. 'Especially with this here.'

'What is it?'

"It's basically a wild card in the equation. It's based on faith and trust and killed by doubt. As the caster, I have no control over which numbers get in here. I basically have to prepare every other number, wait to see what these ones are, then calculate everything immediately with no chance to double check the whole equation. It's mainly based on my peers in the crest, Zero and Equinox, but any witnesses could affect it. Whatever they do, I have to work with it and fast.'

'You trust Zero.'

'I do. And really, Equinox is too young to mess this up. As for others, well… let's go ahead and copy the spell so I can memorize it.'

The adult gave the child his notebook, so he could copy it himself. Then he listened carefully. As the child finished, footsteps came down the hall. It sounded like high heels. The book was closed.  
'Could you ask another question?'

'Someone's coming. Do your meditations; I'll protect you.'

The child tensed. The adult tied the blindfold back around his head, then picked him up. Then a woman's voice drifted to them. "Oh little trespasser..."

'Any good disguise spells I can pull off?' the adult asked, closing the book.

'Forte used a shadow-type shield to protect us the first time,' the child thought, bringing up that specific formula.

'Okay. Just remember, you can't make a sound.' The adult cast the spell and moved deeper into the shadows of the room.

Nervously, the child listened through the adult's ears. The woman stepped in. "Is that my little devil child? Where are you?"

He shivered. It was Circe Whiplash, the female reploid who'd been assigned to be his supposed caretaker. With a white and black dress armor that seemed dainty, she didn't look like the threat she was. She'd mostly ignored him, but had never hesitated to strike him if she didn't like what he was doing. The adult X kept still.

She frowned and turned on the lights. Since the adult was in the shadow of one of the paper bins, she didn't see them. "I know you're here."

"What are you doing here?" Ikari asked sternly.

Circe turned and quickly bowed. "M-master Domino, I'm sorry. I was looking for a trespasser I felt and tracked the signal here. I, I didn't hear you."

The adult felt nervous too. He hadn't heard Ikari approach either.

Entering the room, Ikari examined the closed book. "No one can get this far into the Tower without the proper keys. Or permission."

"Sorry, master."

'But we had no trouble coming in here,' the child thought.

'Maybe there's some oversight. No one is perfect.'

'He'll kill us if we're found.'

Feeling the child's mind slipping badly, the adult sat on the floor and put his hand behind the child's head. 'I'll do your meditations with you. We can't be seen unless we panic.'

"I thought I sensed X; that's why I came all the way down here."

The adult and child X stopped when they heard this.

Ikari didn't seem impressed. "You probably felt Albert and Quint working on the ceremony. Now get out of here before I report you."

"Yes, master." She bowed and left the room.

Ikari turned to the book and spoke a strange language. It opened up; the pages also folded out, from two to eight. He summoned a sheet of numbers and began to review. "Right... so he's got X and Zero accounted for, the two shadows, and the four mirrors..."

'He knows about you!' the child thought.

'How does he know we're in this world?'

'Maybe the Ikari in your world isn't a mirror.'

'It was very convenient that you found a world transport device in Shadow Palace and got us at Ikari Tower.'

Then Ikari swore. "How is it... this equation is off a tenth of a unit, that I should be able to fix. But the end result off over ninety thousand units."

'What's that mean?' the adult asked.

'My hybrid spell the other night was worth fifty thousand units and I had to have help with it. Let's go peek; it should be the death crest equations. That's the only way he can be dealing with such power.'

'You sure?'

'Yeah.'

The adult felt that the child's curiosity over the spell equations was stronger than his fear. Since that was good, he carefully walked in shadows until he could view three pages filled to the edges. The rest was blocked either by Ikari or his sheet of numbers.

"There must be something else," Ikari mused. "Or maybe he screwed up these numbers. This was all working perfectly a year ago. What the hell is wrong?"

'It's too complicated,' the adult thought. 'Too many little things to go wrong and mess everything else up.'

The child was about to agree when Ikari snapped his head up. He looked around. "So there is a trespasser. A shadow. What did you say?"

The child shivered.

The adult took a deep breath, then said, "It's too complicated. I don't understand it." He paused, then added, "I'm sorry I couldn't answer the question."

The shield remained intact.

Rubbing his forehead, Ikari nodded. "A Spell Echo, that's what you are. I'll have to suitably punish her later; something like you is not worth a fuss."

'What's a Spell Echo?' the adult asked.

'He's probably referring to an unusual shadow that is created when two large magical forces collide, whether naturally or by spellwork. It's one of the few shadows that is known for honesty and helpfulness. The Echo seeks to perform tasks or answer questions and would apologize like you did when unable to do so.'

'I see.'

'The thing is, once the Echo has performed a suitable amount of tasks, or a suitably difficult task, it dies. If you don't give it a task or question, though, it becomes unhappy, so it's best to use one that appears. Actually, the mere existence of the self aware Spell Echo is what gave my grandfather the first theories on how to make reploids.' As he explained, the child became less nervous.

But when Ikari spoke, he tensed back up. "Echo, are you still there?"

"Yes, Master Domino."

He stifled a chuckle. "You must have been here in the Tower for some time to know my name."

The adult referred to the child's knowledge to answer appropriately. "I have the misfortune of being difficult to see. No one can ask me things or give me a task. I have wandered long."

"I can give you a difficult and risky task if you are willing to do so."

"Certainly, Master Domino," the adult replied with false enthusiasm. Fortunately, it sounded real. "I will perform my task as best as I can."

"Good. I need you to enter the home of the Light family in Monsteropolis. You will need to be unseen and unheard so you won't be caught by the powerful wizards living there. You need a hair each from the two children living there: X Light and Zero Light. Take this hair as well." He handed over a lavender hair. "Once you have all three, report to the Shadow Master and tell him to examine all three hairs, then report back to me. That should be sufficient to grant your freedom."

The adult shifted the child so he could take the hair. "Thank you, Master Domino. I will head out right away."

"Leave." Ikari went back to studying the numbers he had.

With that, X left the room and headed back to the keyhole door to return home.

When they got back in Shadow Palace, the door behind them abruptly vanished, leaving them in a long cement tunnel. The adult spotted a door and walked briskly towards it. But he stopped just before getting there. A strange feeling had come over him. It was like... it was like being back at Maverick Hunter HQ and learning that the higher ups wanted him to show up for a surprise review. It didn't happen often, but they liked to randomly review higher ranking Hunters to keep the younger ones on their toes. Someone was coming that had all of the adult's respect and obedience, but he had no idea who this person was.

'What is it?' the child asked, initially confused. But he recognized the danger first. 'Get going, run away! It's the Shadow Master, and if you see him, we can't do anything against him.'

The adult tried to run off, but felt glued to his spot. But he still had to protect the child. 'What does a Spell Echo look like?'

'Why do you want to know?' The image came into the child's mind anyways.

Adult X concentrated on the image of a Spell Echo. His friend Zero had managed to figure out how to make a sword from shadows. It was possible he could make himself look like an Echo. They looked, if visible, like an incomplete pen drawing. Some part would be missing, or would be too vague to identify. Other parts would be in such detail that it was too realistic. The adult manipulated his shadow body until it appeared like a vague pen drawing.

The door he'd been headed for opened. Copy X came out, mumbling to himself. An elf followed him. " _Buzz off, Echo_ ," the elf demanded.

Trying to stay as the creature, the adult mimicked a bee's buzzing.

"Don't tease it, Bloody Eye," Copy X said. "What are you doing here, Spell Echo?"

Adult X would have liked to cover up, but with a direct question from the Shadow Master, he had to tell some truth. "I was sent on a difficult task by Master Domino. I will return to you with some hairs to examine."

"What! Can't he come himself instead of sending some idiotic Echo? Every task is difficult for you."

"It is by Master Domino's request," he replied meekly.

"Fine, I'll do his stupid request."

"I'll be back right away, Shadow Master."

"I am not a shadow!" Copy X yelled.

Adult X felt terrible and ashamed. "Sorry... Master X?"

"That's better." He grumbled for a bit, then added, "So why are you here instead of getting your hairs?"

"I must enter the Light household in Monsteropolis. But I hear there are strong wizards living there."

"Then don't get caught." Copy X snapped his fingers. A door exactly like every door in the Light's home appeared. "It'll connect, when I'm gone," he sounded exasperated. "Get those hairs and come straight back to me."

"Yes, master."

With that, Copy X made another door and left. Adult X waited until a gold cross appeared on his door, then opened it. It led them back into Zero's bedroom.

Zero slipped out of bed, looking tired and cranky. "Did you get what you were looking for?" he tried to ask politely.

The adult took the blindfold off while the child took out the earplugs. "We did," the child said, "but do you really have to go?"

"I'm sorry," the adult replied. "I wish I didn't, but I must do as he told me to."

"What happened?" Zero asked.

The child bit his lip. The adult said, "I was given a direct order from the Shadow Master. And since I'm inhabiting a shadow's body now, I must follow it."

"But we're reploids. You don't have to be ordered around."

"He can't resist," the child said. He tugged at his hair, then got one out to give to the adult. "If he tries to resist, he'll get sick in his mind. It would be very bad. You need to give him one of your hairs too."

Zero started to say something, but stumbled on his words. After two more false starts, child Zero asked, "Are you coming back?" followed by the adult asking, "Will you be all right?"

"I'll do what I can to come back quickly," adult X replied. "But since I must follow every verbal order the Shadow Master gives me, I may get stuck. Watch over the children, Zero. Make sure everything goes all right if I don't get back right away. X has his information now and he can find a way to reverse the spell."

"I'll watch them," adult Zero replied. "But take care of yourself, and try not to be too long."

Child Zero pulled out one of his hairs. "Yeah, you guys still have to go home."

"I'll get you back home safely, I promise," child X said. "I've caused you both so much trouble already."

"It's fine. We understand. I'll see you later." The adult went back into Shadow Palace.

"You can make sure we don't die now?" child Zero asked.

"I know what to do," X said. "I need a lot of time and quiet to work on it, though. If you have to, distract the grownups around here to keep them away from me. Although, I don't think they'll bother me much in my condition. Sorry for keeping you up. Good night."

"Good night," Zero replied. "But don't forget to wake the grownups up."

"Right. Espresso will wake them up."

"Coffee will?"

"No, espresso is the power word for my sleeping spell." X opened the door again. It was back to normal. He went to his room.

Child Zero watched the door for a moment. "Do you think the Shadow Master can steal you from me too?"

'As long as I don't use my shadow body, I should be fine,' adult Zero replied. 'I'm staying with you.'

* * *

March 14

Rock knocked on X's door. "I'm coming in." He brought in a dinner tray with macaroni and cheese with chicken nuggets. X had holed himself up in his room ever since he came back from the hospital; that was understandable. Starting yesterday, he'd stopped eating; that wasn't understandable. Roll had suggested this might get him to eat something.

X was sitting on his bed as usual. A green notebook, which he seemed to be writing in constantly the past week, was closed now. He was staring at the closet door.

Rock set the tray beside him. X didn't notice. "Do you feel sick?"

"Huh?" X looked at him. "Oh, no." He looked at the closet again.

"Is something wrong with your closet?"

"No, not that. I'm not hungry."

"Why not? What's wrong?"

X brought his shoulders in defensively. Rock wanted to touch him, to reassure him that way. But that wouldn't comfort him now.

Instead, Rock picked up X's notebook. It had unfamiliar calculations inside. Maybe it was white magic. X had moved in that direction naturally, like Rock had moved into black magic. Then again, with his skill at blending spells, proven by the hybrid crest, X could go into sorcery easily. "What have you been working on?"

"I did something really bad," X said quietly.

"You've done nothing wrong. Your condition is not your fault."

"No." He started to fuss with his hair, but stopped himself this time. "I did something I wasn't supposed to and someone else is paying for it."

"What did you do?"

X turned a page of his notebook. Their hands brushed; X's hand jerked, but he reasserted control. "I was looking for a way to end our death curse, or delay it. I remembered that Ikari Domino had a book of unusual spells in the Tower."

"You thought about going to the Tower?"

"I don't ever want to see that Tower again," X said, quickly. "No, um... you remember Lulani's reading in December?"

"I won't forget it."

"I know who the third soul is."

"You do? I thought it was Forte."

"No, not him. Before I met you, I met a, um, a wandering soul. He was my first real friend, I think. Zero's my best friend, but I've had to take care of him from the day I met him, so that's different. And I had a librarian friend in the Tower, a drake, but I suspect he reported about me to Master Wily. The wandering soul is the first person who ever cared about me just for me. He never thought that I was too smart too young, or that I was a devil child."

"You're not a devil child, no way."

"I know. But now my friend is gone and it's all my fault."

"How did he get in trouble?"

"Ikari forbade me to look at his best spellbook, the one I suspected had the answers in it. He threw me into a wall just for glancing at it once. I told my friend and he offered to go look in it for me. He sent me back all this information, and it does tell me some interesting things. But on his way back, he got captured by the Master of Shadow Palace."

"There's a Shadow Master now? That's very worrisome."

"Neko could tell you, if he could speak again. And Star could too, if he can get past his shadows."

"Star's getting better. He's starting to make sense again. So why don't we go and rescue your friend, the wandering soul?"

X looked at his father curiously. "You'd do that? Why?"

"You should remember: Lulani said the third soul helped bring us together. So what if I've never talked to him? He helped bring you to me, and thus I'd be willing to enter Shadow Palace to get him out."

"But you can't do that alone."

"Blues would go with me. I don't want you going in, not with how the simple chaos of normal life bothers you. And I think I could talk Roll and Sonya into spotting us from outside the Palace."

"That can be done?"

Rock nodded. "It requires strong telepathic links and stabilizers, but it can be done."

"But what if he doesn't want to come back to me? I've asked so much of him and he's only asked me to be strong and to use my intellect. I'm afraid I've kept him from his home for so long... and I wasn't always appreciative of his efforts. Sometimes I hated him and yelled at him for some mistake I made. He's just kept patient so far. But what if he's getting tired of all my mistakes and tasks?"

He thought about it for a little while. Then he brought out his Tarot cards. He shuffled them for a while, then blindly pulled out three cards. "Ever since Lulani spoke to us, I was curious about this third soul. My skill at card fortunes is poor, I admit. But when my cards find a truth, they'll continually repeat it until I believe them. I asked about the third soul, and here is what my cards say of him: he is a wise, loving, and loyal soul who seeks peace and family love. If he has committed himself to helping you, he won't abandon you until you are safe. Or," Rock frowned at an unusual card in the group, "or if he gets into trouble beyond his skills."

There was a knocking at the closet door.

X tensed. Rock got up. "What spirit is in there?"

There was a faint sound, like trees in a light breeze. Or, perhaps more correctly, like the whisper of a shadow. But with that, X perked up. "It's him! He got away on his own!" He jumped off the bed and ran over to the closet to open the door. "I'm so sorry you got in trouble."

The faint sound came back. Rock went to activate the spell that allowed him to see shadow beings. By the time he tapped his eyes, X had closed the door again, and there was no one to be seen. However, it did feel like there was a loving presence in the room, for a few moments.

"It was him?"

X nodded. "He managed to trick the Shadow Master on his own, by tasking some Spell Echoes to help him. And now I can finish up the crest reversal, then figure out a way to send him home."

Rock smiled. "That's good. But first, you'd better eat. You need to keep your strength up for something as potent as crest reversal."

"Okay, I'll eat now."

"Do you want my help with the spell work?"

"Um," it looked like he was considering it. But no. "Um, I think I can manage on my own. Just so long as I have some peace and quiet to work in."

"All right. Call me for any help you do want."


	30. Box of Matches

March 15, XX55  
Monsteropolis City Government Building, Room 7a

Zero was bored. He and X were stuck in a small plain room, with only some wooden blocks and a plastic ring puzzle for toys. They were there for a reason: the Light siblings and Forte were all at the government meeting. Several rooms away, the City Council, who now knew that the city had the two children Domino had asked for, was discussing what they should do about the situation. The four adults were trying to convince them to help find a way to postpone the death curse and reverse the situation. A great many people wanted spring to come, but were undecided on whether sacrificing two reploid children was worth that.

Forte had grumbled at one point that had it been two human children, there would be no debate. It would be flat out no to Domino's plan.

Even more boring, Rock had experimented with another sensory deprivation curse on X, since Numb Block wasn't working anymore. Zero was definitely telling him never to use this particular one again. For the past hour, X had been completely deaf and partially blind. The end result: he sat under one of the corner chairs with his green notebook, so he could view the whole room. It did dull the unnaturalness in his icy eyes, but that was the only good thing.

Finally, X came out from under the chair. He picked up one of the plastic rings. "Zero?" he called, a little too loudly.

"What?" Zero replied, making sure X saw and heard him.

He held out the plastic ring and his pen. "I have to talk to the City Council. It's about the sacrifice; I know how to stop it. But we have to get everyone to agree to help us. Lead me there, and if they ask any questions, write them so I know."

"If you know what you're doing."

X nodded. "I know."

Zero took the plastic ring, to lead without actually touching X. They got out of their small room and went to the main chamber. The guard at the door was looking for unauthorized adults, not unsupervised children, so they got by unnoticed.

Inside, the meeting chamber was dark. Right in front of them was the main speaker's desk, which was lit up by a holographic display. Two people near the display were partly seen, but it was so bright that the main audience could not be seen. Good, X might be okay in this environment, despite all the people.

"What if Master Domino is controlling the Ice Dragon?" the current speaker said. "Will he force us to sacrifice children every year? We can't afford that!"

"It will return to the normal seasonal cycle," another said.

"How do you know that for certain? And once you start this sort of thing, it's hard to stop. The children must be protected, all of them. We cannot lose these two just to protect us."

Before they could continue the debate, Zero dropped the ring and stepped into the hologram's light. The hologram's lights reflected in his armor, so he looked like a living fire. "Wait a second, we're here!"

There was nervous and surprised talking throughout the room. X came into the lighted area as well. Zero looked at him, but soon looked toward the nearest speaker instead. The bright lights on X's pallid skin, blue lips, silver hair, and now dulled eyes made him look dead.

"Children are not supposed to be here," that speaker said, although he sounded like he wasn't sure what to do now.

"This has to do with our lives," Zero said. He was close enough that his voice carried onto the speakers around the room. "We ought to be here. No, leave the lights out and give the microphone to X. He knows what's going on."

The councilman, a stranger to them, put his microphone down and whispered to someone close in the dark, "What now?"

"Let them speak, if they wish."

"All right." He came into the hologram long enough to give X the microphone, then stepped aside.

Putting both hands on the microphone and his notebook under his arm, X looked directly into one of the hologram's lights. The chamber's sound system automatically adjusted to him speaking louder than normal. "You don't have to worry," X said. "We're going to the World Peace Center on the twenty-first. We'll do so willingly."

Whispers around the room vanished, leaving a silent anxiety. Zero put his hands behind his back, trying not to fidget or look nervous. But what was X's plan?

"I know you don't want us killed, but it will be okay. This seems like a terrible and sad occasion, but you will find it to be joyful and wonderful when dawn passes and it is spring once again. We know Ikari Domino is the one who is calling for our deaths, and we know..." X paused for a second and closed his eyes, as if confirming something. "And we know his father Albert Wily hates my family, so it would seem this is a delayed plan of vengeance. That may have been the intent, but there is a way they do not know of. They have made mistakes, and they know there are problems, so they released our names and curse publicly. But I know the way they do not, and the two of us will insure that the global climate will return to normal, with no more unnatural dragons."

X stopped for a bit, so Zero added, "Yeah, the Ice Dragon will never freeze the world again, and the Fire Dragon will never appear to scorch the world with eternal summer."

After watching his lips for the words, X nodded. "That's right. We are doing this for the happiness and well-being of all people. For that, we do not mind the risks. This world will be healthy and at peace again."

* * *

March 17  
Light residence

Blues did not want to be here right now. He'd been home for two months when two weeks was usually long enough. He wanted to be going someplace else, or at least to be doing anything. If he had something to be done every day, he wouldn't mind staying so much. But they were just waiting now, it seemed like it. Blues wanted to leave the city.

But he couldn't. When Rock said he wished he was fully under Soul Winter again, Blues had to stay here and help however much he could. But what could be done? X had some plan of his own, but Blues had suspicions about that. Everyone else was trying to research this and find another solution, but the magic being used in this ceremony was almost alien in how different it was. Blues sent Ska to copy X's green notebook. The elf did so, but even between the experiences of Rock, Forte, and Star, they couldn't make sense of the information. The idea of a phoenix had never even existed until X mentioned it to Lulani.

His musing was interrupted as he noticed Rock coming up the stairs and Forte coming down the hall. Blues stayed in his doorway, but watched closely. Even when Rock said it was okay, and Forte promised not to make trouble, things had been tense between them. That tension had grown sharp ever since X made his announcement that they were going to the sacrificial ceremony, willingly.

"Waiting to hear from someone in Lunesk," Rock said, almost apologetically. "I gave them some of the information from X's notebook... the Lunar Priestess might know."

If Forte had been a wolf, his ears would have flattened by now. "If they haven't given up," he said quietly.

"X said to trust them," he replied, but uneasily.

"Trust a child who..."

Blues felt he'd better intervene before anything got out of hand. It felt strange, and he already knew he'd side with his brother if it got to argument. But then Roll came upstairs, carrying a vacuum cleaner. "Excuse me," she said politely.

It was a curious thing to witness. The tension in the air deflated immediately. Forte turned and went upstairs. Looking unsettled, Rock went back downstairs, mumbling about forgetting something. Roll set the vacuum down, checked the side, found an empty bottle, then went back downstairs as well. Since the situation was past, Blues went back to leaning against his doorframe.

What caused that? Roll was an extremely nice person, and it was hard to fight with or around her. But Rock and Forte had hated each other ever since they could hate anybody. And Blues didn't want to fight with or around his sister because she was his sister. Forte had no reason to give up around her. Maybe it was just some strange feminine power he didn't understand.

But at least the inevitable fight hadn't happened there, within hearing distance of both boys. Everyone had worked so hard to gain the trust of X and Zero, but with the situation between their fathers, everything could be blown to ashes in moments. The boys needed all the help they could get, but it would mean nothing if they didn't accept that help.

A soft whimper brought Blues out of his thoughts. X was standing in the bathroom door, staring at the vacuum cleaner. His grip on the doorframe was tight, although his skin was too pale to be turning white. Any sudden noise at this point would probably drive him berserk.

Blues walked over to him; he had to think consciously about not walking silently as he usually did. X acknowledged him by moving into the bathroom, but kept watching the vacuum.

"What's up, kiddo?" Blues asked.

"S-somebody was staring at me in the bathroom," X replied.

He glanced in the bathroom. A portrait was now turned to face the wall.

"And that's going to bite me." X shook his head. "It can't; it wouldn't." He shivered. "But it could... it's not supposed to be there."

This too was confusing. X was smart enough that he was studying reploid physiology, by his own curiosity. He knew these fears were irrational, and yet they still stalled him. Blues couldn't understand how anyone could be cruel enough to drive a child to this.

He offered his hand. "You want me to come with you?"

X didn't take his hand. But he did walk to the other side of Blues. He kept a close eye on the vacuum, as if it really would bite him. Once back to his room, he relaxed. "Um, I know that was stupid. But thanks."

"It's fine," Blues said, being serious.

"Um... is my dad and Forte going to fight? I didn't want to be trouble."

He would notice. "It's not your fault. It's just hard to forgive someone you've hated for so long."

"I guess. I hope they won't."

"Are you all right? With the ceremony and all this?"

"Oh, the ceremony's no problem. I have that all figured out; I'm just fine tuning some things and..."

Roll came back upstairs with her bottle of cleaner. X saw her, looked at the vacuum, gasped, and shut the door quickly. Blues managed to get his fingers out of the way before they got slammed. It seemed like everything but the ceremony scared X now. And that, Blues thought glumly, made X's plans suspect.

"You might not want to vacuum here," Blues said. He knew Roll was keeping busy to keep from thinking too much. She'd closed the inn for the month of March, and thus must be finding herself at a loss of what to do.

"Oh, is X spooked about something?"

"The vacuum wasn't where it was supposed to be, he said."

Blues felt his hand being tugged. Zero was by him. "Hey, have you seen my dad?"

"He was here a minute ago," Roll said.

"He went upstairs," Blues told him.

"Thanks." He fiddled with an envelope in his hand, then went to the stairs.

"Are you doing all right?" Blues asked.

"I'm fine," Zero said, too forceful to be convincing. He seemed to realize that, adding, "I'm not scared or anything. I just have to talk to him." He ran upstairs to avoid saying anything else.

"He's so macho for a little boy," Roll said sadly. "I'm willing to bet that he is scared."

"I would be," Blues admitted.

* * *

Roll shut the utility closet, having put the vacuum away. It was an old device, but doing things manually helped her think. But with X being scared of the vacuum now, she had to order the cleaner bots to clean thoroughly instead.

She went into the kitchen and found Rock leaning on the counter. "You look tired."

Rock put his hand over his forehead. "Been having trouble sleeping. I can't get that image out of my head. X looked so dead when he was at the council meeting."

"It was just that temporary curse you tried; you didn't know it would affect him like that."

"I know." He sighed. "Forte's been trying to irritate me by suggesting that X is mentally ill, worse than we think, and can't be trusted. I hope that's not intentional."

Roll felt the division in her heart sharply. Earlier, Forte had suggested that Rock was being stubbornly blind to the situation. He had spoken of trying to undo the curse X was under from within, by altering his programming. He did say it was risky and highly possible X would become ill as a result. At the time, Roll said they shouldn't attempt anything that drastic.

The thing that stayed in her mind was Forte's belief that X had total sway over Zero and that if they wanted to save their son, they had to do something about X. Convince him to not go to the ceremony, or convince him there was another way. He never said it, but Roll suspected that if things got desperate enough, Forte might try to kill X.

And then what would she do? It was tempting, to go with Forte and their son to keep him safe, somehow ignorant of what kept him alive. But to sacrifice her brother's happiness, love, and trust, and her nephew's life to do that... Roll felt terrible, but couldn't say a word. If Rock learned the truth about Zero now, things would get nasty and the conflict would be worst within her own soul.

Ignorant of all this, Rock continued, "I trust X knows what he's doing. I just wish he'd tell me."

She had to keep peace in their home. "Maybe you should try a sleeping enchantment, just so you're thinking clearly."

"Maybe. But all I know are heavy sleeping enchantments."

"I'll give you one. I know a trick with tea and honey that will put you to sleep safely."

Roll helped Rock get some sleep, then went to her room. She thought of enchanting herself asleep as well. Instead, she sang a lullaby and worked on organizing her room. Maybe it was because she had shut down the inn, but she didn't feel like herself lately. Or maybe it was because a time she dreaded was coming soon, a time when she might have to choose permanently whether she was more loyal to her brothers, or to her lover.

"Roll?"

It was Zero; he'd somehow slipped into the room without her notice. She knelt down to be on eye level with him. "It's late, Zero. You should be in bed."

"I was just talking with my dad again, that's all." He got momentarily distracted by one of the fire ribbons. He tried to snatch at it, but it slipped out of his fingers. Roll wished she could take those silly ribbons off too. "What song were you singing?"

Roll felt caught, but relieved. Would he know she was his mother by her song? She had sung it a lot when he was just programming in her mind. It might happen. But still, Rock and Blues were both nearby, and she didn't know for certain if Zero recognized the song or her. "My father taught it to me. It's an old lullaby I sing occasionally."

"Oh." He rubbed his cheek, then brought his hand down as if trying not to look nervous. "It's kinda weird, but I think my mother used to sing that to me."

"You think she did?"

"I know it sounds silly. I never really met her, you see, and I never thought about her much until my dad said she was still around. So I shouldn't really know what she sang to me, but whenever I did think of her, it was always that song. And then I heard you singing it, and I could sort of feel her with me." Zero shook his head. "It's just my imagination, I guess."

"Reploid children always know their mother's soul," Roll told him. "It's the first thing they know."

"Really? So I'll know her when I meet her?"

Roll had to restrain herself from reacting, hard. "You'll know her someday."

"I wish I knew her now. I, I mean, I'm not scared or nervous or anything. I just want to meet her once."

"I could sing for you, if that will remind you of her soul."

Zero looked in her eyes and she knew he was terrified of dying in a few days. She didn't wait for a reply. She held him and sang the lullaby for him. Would that make him realize the truth?

He fell asleep.

Roll managed to catch one of the ribbons. Although it looked like fire, it didn't burn her. It just felt strangely warm, like a ray of summer sun. But as she thought of trying to take it off, it slipped through her fingers. She couldn't remove the curse from her son, and she couldn't tell him that he was her son.

She held him closely and whispered in his ear. "I'm sorry, Adrian."

* * *

It was late. Forte was lying on the roof, looking at the city lights reflecting off the clouds. The weird orange-brown color was something you'd never see in the forests, he thought. He never liked living in cities. Breaking into one was a worthwhile challenge, but unless he could morally justify doing so, there was no reason to do such things now. He wished he wasn't here.

He wished he could take Zero and Roll and get out of here. He'd like to take them someplace else. Anyplace else, even another city if he had to. Roll would probably insist so that Zero could continue school. But they would be safe. As long as he got his son away from X, they would probably be safe.

Forte was certain X was the problem with the death crest. Every revelation about it came through him. And Forte knew that his father knew about Zero. This was probably Wily's idea of punishing him, to prove that his disobedience was unwanted. Wily would want X dead, no doubt about it. Forte was fairly certain that if he got his son away from this house of enemies, and convinced Roll into leaving willingly, then Wily would finally leave him alone.

That's ridiculous, Forte thought. He'd fallen out of his father's favor a long time ago. There was no way he'd be accepted back, or even passively ignored. Master Wily probably wanted Zero dead more than he wanted X dead. In that case, the death crest was entirely a punishment against Forte, with Rock and X as good collateral damage.

Forte hated X just as much as he completely understood the cursed child's position. While everyone else was getting desperate and anxious to stop this sacrifice, X was calm and unafraid. Little things drove him crazy, like a noise being too loud, or a portrait's eyes staring at him. X was not at fault for his afflictions; they were caused by people who hated him simply because he was his father's son. And yet X had convinced Zero to go to a ceremony that scared him.

If only running away would solve this problem. He'd take Zero anywhere if it helped him live. He'd even take just Zero; Roll would hate him for that, but in time, she might understand why. It was so hard being unable to do anything worthwhile. As the first day of spring drew nearer, Forte could see his son growing fearful and seeing the sacrifice becoming real. X said he had a plan, but if even Zero doubted it, something was wrong. Why wasn't X telling anyone else? Did he want to die? Forte wished he could force Rock into realizing that it was a strong possibility and he had to do something about it before the twenty-first.

It was possible. X had been through hell his whole life. Forte remembered how he looked under the spotlights, how dead his face seemed. It was possible, and he had convinced Zero to follow him. Zero saw the possibility, but remained strong in his trust. But that possibility made his questions about his unknown mother more frequent and impatient.

And why was Roll still quiet on that? Couldn't she just tell Zero and be done with it? Why did she insist on secrecy when the point of its usefulness had long past? She certainly had to see how anxious Zero was to know her, at least for one less unknown. It made Forte want to hate her too.

He kicked at a sheet of ice and sent it over the roof's edge. The sting of that anger hurt deeply. He could remember a time when he could have betrayed Roll to win back his father's favor. That day... he hadn't even acknowledged to himself that he liked her. His father asked where she was. With one little white lie, he trashed any chance in getting back to the top of the Wily clan. But with that one little white lie, he wound up on a course of love and intrigue that brought him here, to his enemy's house, where his son was afraid to die in a matter of four days.

Was it worth it? Would it have been better to just give her up that day? He would probably be more powerful now if he had. He might be dead by now if he had. And Zero would have never come into being.

It was better that I lied then, Forte decided. Master Wily would never be his father, only a master to be freed from. Whereas Roll loved him deeply, and Zero was relearning to love him. Even just the love of two people was better than any power he might have had. And there were always those four short months at the beginning of Zero's life when he was Adrian. Those memories were precious beyond anything; Forte was glad to have them.

He got up and went back inside. Taking a chance, he went down to the second floor. Most of the doors were shut and dark. Roll's was partly open and lit. Forte knocked on the door and came in.

She looked tired and miserable. She was sitting in a chair, with a book open but not really reading. Acknowledging him with a glance, she looked like she might say something... but then decided not to. There had been a quiet but happy reunion time that remained politely chaste, but then things settled into an awkwardness that was stubborn. They hadn't argued, although the lines were there: she'd thought he'd really died, and he wanted her to tell Zero the truth. Perhaps a sharp word or two would get her to come out. The thought made Forte uneasy, though. He didn't want to ruin their relationship further.

He went over and handed her the envelope. "Zero wrote you again. Insisted I couldn't see this time."

"Oh." She took the envelope, although her eyes seemed to indicate she knew what their son was going to say. It wasn't good.

The quiet became oppressive. Forte turned to leave, but then Roll took his hand.

No, he couldn't leave her like this. He hugged her and they cried silently for a long time.

* * *

The table in the second floor den was strewn with papers. Star was busy with his self-appointed project to fully deconstruct the death crest. A crest was usually a combination of several spell equations, all of which could be derived from the structure of the drawing. If the crest drawing gave few clues, then details surrounding the spell would be telling. Details like how X was born at Ikari Tower after being in his mother's mind and how Zero was born in St. Jude's hospital here in Monsteropolis after being in his father's mind.

But there were gaps which kept the solution, a way to null the crest, from being found. There were connections with no apparent purpose. It would help if I knew who Zero's mother was, Star thought often. X and Zero were young enough that their parents still played a heavy role in their fortunes. He got some hints as to who she was and what she was like. She liked roses, he could figure that out. But that wasn't enough to help the boys.

Star really wanted to help them. They had brought him out of Shadow Palace; maybe not intentionally, but they did. They had reunited him and Sonya. And for that, the Guises owed the boys a lot. The art of sorcery was what Star was best at. It had to help them.

At least it's not Shadow magic, Star thought gratefully. Shadow magic was a pain to undo and most irreversible curses relied on Shadow runes. He would hate to be under a Shadow type curse.

The thought momentarily distracted him from his deconstruction. Am I under a Shadow curse? Part of Star's mind thought that was false. But lately, he'd been suspecting something wasn't right in his life. There were times when he didn't remember anything. Like a few weeks back; Star hardly remembered what happened in the last part of February into March. There were other memory blanks in the past eight years or so, but he had been passing them off as not important. And there was something about his lifelong friend Neko that kept bugging him. He couldn't think of it now, and not being able to think of things was a sign of a Shadow curse.

No, focus on this problem. Star looked over one of his diagrams. He could identify the area of the crest that centered on X, because he knew the most about X. That area consisted of the top third of the crest, including the child angel's head. Why was it only a third? He didn't think Zero was enough to fill the remaining two-thirds.

Thirds. Star took his pen and placed a line halfway, to divide the crest in equal thirds. Checking the two thirds... there was one section that was obviously Zero's, and another that was foreign to him. Three. There were three children involved in the sacrifice, not two. Who was the third?

Sonya sat by him. "Honey, are you still working? It's late; you need to get some rest."

"Oh, hi Chi. I didn't notice you come in. Look at this."

She looked over the papers, but the deconstruction process meant little to her. "What am I looking at?"

"This. I can divide the crest into thirds. There's a third child that will be killed."

She shivered. "That's not good. Who's the third child?'

"I don't know yet. It explains some complexity but I'm still not there yet. X's notes... over here... they help some, but I don't quite understand them all. Hey." He looked over one of the copies of the green notebook. "Looks like X knows about the third child too." Star began copying some information to the split crest, filling in the riddle of the third child.

"As if this tragedy needs to be worsened." Sonya rubbed her forehead.

Star paused and looked at her. "Don't worry, it's not our child. The little one's too young to be of any effect in something like this."

She put her arm around him. "It's still bad for the others. We have to take care of them for the next few days; they'll be too distraught to help themselves."

"I know; that's why I'm working so hard on this."

"I think it's a girl this time."

"Just listen to the doctor and she'll be okay."

"I know. I'm being careful."

Star went back to his diagramming. Sonya waited by him, probably to get him to go to sleep soon. "I still can't figure the holes out. It would help so much if I know more about Zero's mother."

Sonya was quiet for a bit, then whispered, "What if I told you that Roll is Zero's mother?"

"Roll? But... I know they're accepting Forte now, but I hardly think she would... she doesn't seem like that kind of woman."

"And, if you've not noticed, Forte isn't quite what everyone makes him out to be."

"How did you find this out?"

"Let's just call it a woman's intuition."

Star smiled slightly. "Darling, I trust your intuition, but you must tell me what made you think this."

"All right, but don't go mentioning this to anyone else here. I've noticed, a few times, that Roll does have a special soft spot for Zero. I saw her a few hours ago taking him to bed. He must have fallen asleep somewhere else, and she was carrying him. I noticed then; I'm not sure why I didn't notice before, but their faces do look similar. And she did seem very motherly at that point."

"She loves any child, you know."

"I know, but this was different."

Star scratched his chin. "That's interesting, and yet I'm not certain."

Sonya cupped her hand around Star's ear. "And you really can't tell this. I just saw Forte in Roll's room."

"What?" Star had to concentrate on not speaking loudly.

"I wasn't spying on them, honest. I was coming down after you, her light was on, so I peeked in to see if she wanted someone to talk to. I think they were both crying, and you couldn't call that hug just a friendly one. You know, it reminded me of us."

"Us?"

She nodded sadly. "You know what I mean. All those lonely nights after our children crashed. We know what that's like, and I swear it was similar."

"That's a convincing argument. Let's see how this works out."

Star did a copy enchantment on the page devoted to Zero's birth signs. On the copied page, he added Roll in as Zero's mother. She did match what he knew; she did love roses, among other things. She did fill in the gaps on Zero's signs nicely. With that confirmed, he started rearranging the relationships in the crest. Zero and X being cousins reset the balance. Roll and Rock, now with double positions as parent and aunt/uncle, refined the focus. With that, he was even able to complete a set of birth signs for the third child. It would have to be another male cousin. To balance things right, he had to be of the Wily clan and another parent.

Star looked over the end result. It was very elegant, although complex. The precision with how things were set up was impressive. Too impressive. "Oh hell," Star mumbled.

"What is it?"

"I don't see any loose ends. This is the closest thing to a fate spell that I've ever seen."

"Fate? You're kidding."

"I wish I was. But look, if I can read the third child this clearly, this setup has been designed by some genius who also knows sorcery. I still can't say who exactly this child is. He's the son of one of the Rock Killers, I can tell that. And his mother died the day he was born, killed by the child's father."

"How awful. But is there anything we can do for X and Zero?"

"What about X and Zero?"

Star and Sonya looked up to see Forte in the doorway. He came in to look over Star's papers. Star cleared his throat nervously. "Well, I've been doing some work, and..."

* * *

Rock dreamed of snow. He and Blues had been caught out in blizzards many times, and they knew how to survive. Rock had been caught alone in blizzards around six times. This seemed to be one of those times. He remembered these sandstone ruins, some old forgotten castle that was falling apart. On the walls surrounding him, there were the anti-cold shield runes that he had written to keep warm.

The snowfall and wind dropped to a bearable point. Rock looked out and saw a flash of silver ice. Not being part of his memory, he went over to look. It was X, kneeling with his eyes closed and his hands in his lap. He'd found some corpses this way over the years. Worried, he put his hand on his son's shoulder.

X opened his eyes, but somehow the hard diamond sparkle was worse than usual. "Hello, dad."

"Hello, X. What are you doing out here?"

He smiled. It was creepy seeing that pale smile stolen from a frozen corpse. "It's a wonderful time, isn't it? You have entered Spring and are coming close to Summer."

"It is nice," although he felt something terrible was coming up. "I wish you could feel this happiness."

X laughed. It too was disturbing; Rock couldn't put a finger on what bothered him about this mood. "I am happy. Every day makes me happier, closer to freedom."

"Are you truly happy?"

"Yes. I'm going to die."

"No you're not. We'll save you."

"Save me from what? I'm going to be free. I'll be free of fear, shyness, madness, cruelty, lies, abuse, sadness, life... I'll be free from life. This is a wonderful and happy occasion."

Rock took X's hands. "But we've got so much to do. We've only just started. There's so much good to life."

"Good? What more good could I do? I freed you, and that was pretty amazing. I brought Zero back to his father, and that was pretty amazing. But that is all the good I can do. I can't relate to anyone now. I'm too smart, too fearful, too powerful, too strange. My life only gets worse over time, and I'm tired of it."

"But you're only a child; you've only seen four years."

He laughed again. It was a laugh of insanity, Rock realized. "I'm a child? I am no child. I was never a child. I took care of a child. I am feeling happy at last and you wish to ruin it? Just let me go and enjoy your summertime."

"I want to help you."

"Then let me go." X snatched his hands away, then clasped his hands so that he looked like the child angel in the death rune.

"X, please don't leave me alone again."

"I want to be free of the cruelty of life," X said. "My Death, my friend, come to me now."

A blaze of fire from the sky ended the cruel insane laughter of X. The snow evaporated as fire enveloped the old ruins. A black blade of fire now resided in X's head. And right beside him was his child-like friend of death, Zero. His smile was the cruelty of a desert sun.

"Why did you do that?" Rock asked.

"He called me," Zero replied. "I was instructed to execute him, and I did so."

"You were instructed?"

Zero pulled his black blade out of X's body and aimed it at Rock. "Did you ever think you could really trust one of Wily's children? Or grandchildren? Hero, you will..."

Rock did nothing.

"You will live." He extinguished the blade.

Rock woke up in tears and sweat. It was just a dream, but he felt like screaming. Or killing Zero. If it would help X live, he would kill Zero.

He rubbed his face. No, that wasn't right. Why did he even think that? He had given his word to Forte. They would save both boys, no matter what. But days went by, and nothing was found. Every hour came closer to the dreaded ceremony. X said he had a plan. Rock wanted to trust him. But he was so strange lately. He was too quiet and calm. His attention was hardly ever here and now. Rock wanted to believe that was his way of dealing with the berserker curse. But there was a chance he saw the end and wanted it.

He contacted Blues telepathically. This deep connection was great for this emotional whirlwind, because his brother did his best to keep Rock's spirits level. But there was no response. Blues was asleep. Drat. He seemed to hear X's crazed laughter again.

Not feeling like sleeping, or dreaming, again, Rock left his room. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do, just something. As he stepped out, he nearly ran into Forte. He looked ticked off about something. Forte grumbled some apology, then took off upstairs. What had gotten into him?

A creak in the floor distracted him to turn around. Star was there, looking flustered and ashamed. He looked at Rock, fumbled with his papers, and then said, "Well, it's what I got... I tried."

"Tried what?" Rock asked.

Sonya came out and took her husband's shoulder. "Not right now. Maybe we'll talk later. Star needs some rest."

"Okay, yeah," Star mumbled. "I'm really sorry about this."

"Let's go." They went up another staircase.

Rock was puzzled, but didn't feel like getting answers out of them. He did notice that Roll's lights were on. What was she still doing up? Maybe she wouldn't mind talking again. Rock needed to talk out this dream, hopefully to disprove the disturbing thoughts it brought out. X didn't really want to die. He couldn't.

Rock stepped into her room. Roll was asleep. She looked exhausted, and her eyes showed signs of crying. He felt touched to see this. Whenever she loved someone, she threw herself fully into it. He hadn't really thought of it, but she must feel terrible as well. Rock was having enough trouble dealing with his own misery to think of how this made other people feel. After being numb to emotions for decades, he wasn't prepared to deal with this situation.

There was a piece of paper in the middle of her floor. Odd. She kept her room neat and tidy. Rock picked it up, intending on setting it on a table, shutting off the light, and leaving. But then he noticed, from the general look, that it was a letter. The signature at the bottom was Zero's.

Why was he writing her a letter?

Then Rock noticed the greeting of the letter.

'Dear mother,

'You hav to come see me soon. Somthing awful going to happen. I'm going to be killed in a few days. But its even worse than that. There's this evil dragon thats posessing my body and he's going to make me kill X!

'I don't want to hurt X, but I feel his soul everyday, and I here him whispering bad thoghts into my head. This dragon wants to eat my soul. X says the soul is who you realy are, and if you lose that, you're nothing. I don't want any of that to hapen. Don't tell anybody, but it scares me. I can't look at X now and not feel the dragon's wish to kill him.

'Please, mother, you have to come and get me and dad. We can still get away before the twenty first, becase Dad has a cabin in Balna Woods, and I'm sure he knows other places to hide if that doesn't work. We have to be hideing then, becase if I'm not with X, I can't kill him, I think that plan will work. I'm not sure, but no one else has any good ideas.

'X has his plans, but I don't know about them ether. He's strange now and I think he wants to save us, but he seems to quiet to be allright. I don't like thinking of that, but its true. Sometimes I wander if he is my freind anymore.

'At least come see me before I die. Its awful, but I want to know who you are. And I want you to know me before the evil dragon eats my soul.

'Please, please, please, please, come. Zero'

Under Soul Winter, Rock would have taken this numbly. Instead, the letter made him furious. Against whom, he wasn't sure. Whatever had happened, it had gone too far.

Forte must have tricked Roll and the children somehow. He must be here as a spy, to make sure the sacrifice happened. He must have done something awful to Roll and then convinced her to keep quiet about it. Rock was tempted to kill him right now, as this proved he was up to no good again.

But then Rock remembered how glad Forte was to be freed from his father, and how kind he was to both boys.

And what if Roll had willingly... why did all the women in his life turn out to be counterfeits and liars? Rock had trusted her all his life, and then behind his back, she... Rock felt like tearing up the letter, or burning it and leaving the ashes for her. Even leaving it for Zero to find, because he didn't know this. It was evident from the letter and his behaviors that he desperately wanted to know the truth. He'd do it, even if Zero was the fireball that would kill X.

But that was just a dream.

And Roll... maybe she did have a good reason to be quiet. Rock hated Forte from the beginning. But if for some strange twist of fate, she loved him, this must be devastating to her. She was going to lose her son too, but she couldn't tell, or he and Forte would be fighting. And she must have never gotten to hold Zero as a baby. Now to stay quiet when her child was begging her for a final comfort, for the first he had never received...

Rock felt humbled. If he was having a hard time handling the situation, she must be crushed. But she was strong enough to pass over her feelings in order to keep peace in an unstable household. The situation was a box of matches and Roll was the one who risked being burned.

But she had betrayed his trust.

Not certain what he was feeling, Rock turned to put the letter on the table and leave, as he first intended. But then he was met by Forte again. He'd apparently come to turn Roll's lights out. He saw Rock, saw the paper he was holding, and visibly paled.

Rock threw the letter on the floor and shoved Forte aside. He went back to his bedroom. Rock's energy core pulsed quickly and his senses went on full alert. Upon hearing he was pursued, he summoned his pistol from its locked case. He aimed it quickly at Forte's head.

The face-off felt strange. Rock was wearing a flannel pajama set. Forte was wearing jeans and a heavy shirt, like he'd been outside. It used to be that Forte was the one who started their battles. But this time, he stood meekly in the doorframe, not even bothering to defend himself.

He was there to defend Roll. "Don't hate her," he said, his voice cracking as he spoke. "Hate me all you want. But don't hate her for this."

Part of Rock felt at a loss. But most of his soul was embroiled in anger. "Get out of my sight."

"Master Wily is behind this. He was behind everything all along. Me and Roll, you and Adanya, he manipulated all of us."

As if it couldn't be worse, he had to mention that betrayal. "Get out."

Forte left quietly.

Rock sat on his bed, still holding onto the pistol. Everything was different now. He'd only been awake for five minutes and everything had been turned upside down again. And after that disturbing dream... could X be suicidal?

He looked at the pistol and wondered if that wasn't a bad idea.

No, his father had taught him that all life was precious, and he should treasure life and his free soul. Rock dropped the gun on his bed and went to X's room. His feelings had been getting the better of him. He had to be with X now, to help him even if he didn't want the help. Especially if the dream's hints were true.

Forgetting to knock first, he opened the door. X was asleep. Didn't even stir at his father entering the room. Rock walked over quietly and sat on his bed.

He was breathing, despite the pallid skin, the pale blue lips, the silver hair. The small angelic wings fluttered for a moment, then stilled. What was he dreaming of? Rock hoped it was life beyond a week's time.

Some children would sleep with dolls or teddy bears. X slept with his right hand on the green notebook that had his solution in it. If that notebook was so dear to him that he wouldn't let it go even for sleep, did that mean life was just as precious? Rock hoped so.

He went to touch X's hair, but then remembered that he hated being touched now. It was like bugs crawling on his skin. But he was asleep now. Carefully, Rock put his fingertips on X's cheek.

He didn't respond, so Rock brushed down his face. X's eyes twitched a little, but he didn't awaken. Rock wondered if he missed being touched as much as Rock missed being able to comfort him with touch. One never thought of those things until they were forbidden.

Then Rock was touched on the shoulder. It was Blues, finally awake enough to realize that Rock was in a terrible state. "Can't believe anyone would want them dead," Blues whispered.

Rock brushed tears out of his eyes. "Why should they suffer for what we did?"

* * *

March 18

Rock came downstairs to the kitchen for lunch. Roll and Forte were down there; they had been talking, but once he came in, Roll drifted off to work on something. "Do you mind if I make sandwiches?" Rock asked. "X and I are working on his counter spell."

"Go ahead," Roll replied. "I realized I didn't have anything planned, and I still don't know what to do about supper tonight."

"Don't worry about it," Sonya said, coming in. "We'll take care of things, right honey?"

Star nodded. "Right. We've got it covered for you."

"Thanks, you two. If you need anything, just ask me."

"We'll have to check over whatever vehicles we have," Star said. "If we need to be at the Center at dawn of the twenty-first, we have to leave tomorrow, as early as we can."

"I have a sled outside of town if you need it," Forte said. "I can't believe we're really going."

"X's counter spell will only work there," Rock said, as he cut slices of bread.

"Is that going to work, though?" Forte said.

He held back on a retort. "He does say there's a risk involved. We're trying to find a way to reduce that risk right now. But it has several faith numbers. We must believe in them."

Star left to check on the sleds they had. Sonya stayed and helped Rock with sandwiches.

Forte scratched his head. "I guess so."

"I'm sorry about last night," Rock said. While part of him still didn't want to apologize (now that he thought of it, he had a sneaking suspicion he knew when those two had hooked up.. and it wasn't good), the problem right now with X and Zero was more important. For the time being, he had to ignore his own issues.

Forte looked at him, a little surprised. "Oh, that... it's fine. I think the stress is getting to everyone."

"What happened last night?" Roll asked.

They looked at each other. "Nothing," Rock said.

Sonya smiled, trying to make some light of the situation. "That nothing always means something, guys."

Forte waved his hand around for a bit. "It's nothing important now."

"There was one important thing... I'm sorry, Roll, but I found the letter in your room."

"What?" She turned to him, not certain what sort of sign this was. "You mean, that letter from him?"

Rock glanced back and noticed that Zero had come downstairs. "Yes. I didn't mean to read your letters, but it just... caught my eye."

"It's nothing bad," Roll said. "I'm sorry about not saying anything to you but... it's not that I don't like you too, but..."

He put his hand on her shoulder. "I'll talk with you about this later. But right now, you ought to tell him."

"He's right," Forte said. "No point now."

Zero came in. "What're you making for lunch?"

"Sandwiches," Sonya replied, giving Roll a smile and a pat on the shoulder.

For a moment, she looked between Rock and Forte, as if fearing that this whole situation would blow up in her face. Rock bit his lip, but didn't dare glance at his rival to see how he reacted. Then she went over to the boy. "Hey, Zero…"

Zero naively smiled at her. "Hey what?"

"Listen, I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier but... I'm your mother." She pulled out the letter he had written her yesterday.

"Huh?" He looked at her puzzled for a moment. "But so... I was looking for you all this time and you were right here?"

"She is your mother," Forte said.

"I'm very sorry I didn't say anything when I figured it out," Roll went on. "But my situation is just..."

"This is great!" Zero grinned and hugged her. "I always liked you and this makes everything a bajillion times better."

Roll didn't seem to know if she wanted to cry or laugh. She picked him up and for once, he didn't struggle. "It is great."

Sonya handed over two sandwiches, apples, and drinks. Rock nodded and left. And of course, he found Blues in the hallway watching the scene inside the kitchen. "Is she really his mother?" he asked, some disbelief slipping past his usual cool manner.

Rock nodded. "She is."

"Huh." Blues rubbed his chin. "Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?"

Rock shrugged. "It seems to be a great thing. We can talk later over this. Just let them be for now."

"All right, I'll go with you for now. He's been okay so far." Then Blues grinned mischievously. "But you know..."

"What?"

"I've got one thing I want to make sure they know."

"What's that?"

"That if they're going to be engaged in any more funny business, they'd better be married."

Rock laughed, which was unexpected even to him. "Agreed."


	31. The First Day of Spring

March 21, XX55  
World Peace Center

None of the adults at the small camp outside the center were sure if this would be a day of joy or a day of doom. This area didn't seem hopeful. As one of the first places to fall to the winter curse, silver ice spindles dotted the landscape. Thick sheets of ice covered the auditorium that made up the WPC's main gathering place. The fountains were still frozen in place, the way they were stopped twenty-five years ago. They all hoped it would be good day.

"I once held a siege here," Forte told Zero and Roll. "Master Wily wanted this place for his own, and ordered me to take hostages and destroy the statues."

"That was a long time ago, when you were a different person," Roll said.

"I know. Your brothers gave me hell about it at the time. But if you'll notice," he pointed over three fountains that were nearby, "I never did destroy the statues. He'd ticked me off about something or another. I forget now what that was about, but I conveniently left out that part of my orders."

"But you're not going to do anything like that now," Zero said.

"No, I'm not." He looked up at the sky, turning lighter. "I'm not sure what I'll do now."

Across the camp, Rock was with X. They had set up their tent behind a large fountain, to keep distraction away from X. He was studying the ice sheet of the fountain. Every little detail held onto his attention. But when his father came up, he did manage to say, "Are you all right with this?"

Rock sat by him. "I don't like that you have to take this risk. But I respect that you're doing it willingly."

"What's happened? Last week, you and Forte were watching each other like hawks. Then a few days ago, you were close to battle. But on this trip, you've had this quiet respect, almost acceptance."

"I'm not sure what he's thinking. But for me... I was this close to killing him. I felt frustrated and powerless, and... well, things had come to my attention that I didn't like. Something bad might have happened, except that he decided to protect Roll over his own life. He knows Blues and I are protective of our sister, and yet he would do that for her. It made me realize that he honestly loves her and their son. I could hate him, but that would be selfish of me."

"Okay." X scratched his head. "But it sounds like you still don't entirely like him."

Rock nearly laughed, but caught it. "I'll be lenient since Roll loves him."

"That's good." X smiled. "Zero and I will be at their wedding, I promise."

"They haven't said they will get married."

"They will. I can feel it. And we'll be there."

"I'll hold you to that. So I guess it's time for us to head in."

"Yes." X held still as Rock blindfolded him. They decided that this form of sensory deprivation was safest to get him into the Center. "I'm sorry to be putting you through this."

"It's not your fault." He handed X his earplugs and waited until they were in. "It's my fault. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault either," X said, a little too loud.

Rock bit his lip. "Are your earplugs in right?"

X didn't respond.

Rock touched his hand with a plastic ring. X took hold of it, then followed him over to the main camp. Zero came back with his parents, holding each of their hands. Blues, Star, and Sonya joined them, and they went into the World Peace Center's auditorium.

It was an open air building, with hundreds of thousands of seats around a large open field. It was used for many purposes before: meetings, concerts, sports, exhibitions. Zero noticed an odd feel to the air; X knew it as a broadcasting spell, to allow people to speak to each other from any part of the field. The field was mostly empty, but at the opposite end, Ikari Domino and the Dark Hunters had gathered.  
Master Domino was wearing a thick black cloak with white runes embroidered on it. He wore dragonskin boots and a gray crown. In his hand was a black staff topped with a crystal sphere etched like a globe. A black-winged angel carrying Death's scythe rose over the globe. Although Zero couldn't see the details from this end of the field, he knew that staff. It always meant something bad was going to happen if Domino held this staff.

The Dark Hunters were standing close to three torches carrying black flames. Except for Ballade. He was sitting behind his brothers, holding onto Equinox. And while his brothers wore black, Ballade and Equinox wore white. Unseen to the others across the field, Ballade held onto a silver dagger. He had his eyes closed, and his mind was trying to be very far away. Equinox slept.

Zero was the only one to see that Rihanna had come as well. She was resting in the seats with her beak under her wing. But when she noticed the two other marked children enter, she raised her head to watch.

"You were to come alone," Ikari said. His cold steady voice traveled through the broadcast magic to reach them.

"You never said so," Zero called back. He was feeling a great deal more confident than he thought he would.

"Come here without any more fuss," he ordered.

Rock handed X's ring to Zero. He nodded, then tugged at it twice to signal to X that he was leading now.

"Stay here and you will be safe," X told his family and friends. Then he nodded to where he thought Zero was. "Take me to the center of the field." Then X looked at the sky. "Rihanna, come to me if you are here!"

Rihanna met them in the middle of the field. Zero patted her beak as she examined him. "You're not as scary like this."

"I don't want to be scary," she replied in clear English, although it didn't get broadcast. "At least I managed to remember."

X pulled out his earplugs, although he left the blindfold on. "Are you here?"

"I am. Did you find the spell?"

"I believe so. But it's always risky casting a new spell for the first time. Make sure they don't interrupt me."

She looked over at the Hunters and Domino. "I will do my best."

"Don't be selfish," Ikari said. "Dawn's rays are coming across the sky. You don't have much time."

"You don't have a chance," Rock called over. "We won't let your plan work."

X ignored them and knelt down. He activated small winged robot, which was a projector that put his crest on the ground. It was eerily similar to the death crest, Zero noted, save for three details. The daggers were sunbeams, the hearts were little circles around the rune for 'life', and the child angel in the center appeared more confident and content.

X checked the feel of the aura around them, then brought out a bottle of scented oil for a lantern. Zero wasn't sure what the scent was, although it was similar to a spice cabinet. After pouring the oil over the crest, X put his hands together so he looked like the child in the crest. He was silent for a moment, his lips moving to some thought. Then he looked at Zero and asked, "Are you here to protect me or to destroy me?"

Just like the nightmare. Zero felt a shiver in his systems.

But this time, the adult's soul whispered in his mind, 'It's your response this time.'

Rihanna bumped her head gently into Zero's, to reassure him.

"To protect you," he said.

X nodded. "Good." He was quiet for another moment, arranging the spell calculation so he could cast it in time. "All right, Zero. I need you to take out Dusty Blade and strike me through the head with it."

"What the hell are you doing?" Ikari said. "That isn't the proper rite."

"I don't want to," Zero said, alarmed. The Fire Dragon was glad, though, and put his hand on the handle.

"Trust me, it won't work as you think. Make sure you have Dusty. And have no doubts. If we are to live, you need to do this."

The Fire Dragon took the handle, but Zero took it back. There was something Blues had said about if you accidentally hit a friend with it. What about purposely? He turned the blade on. It wasn't the black fiery blade of his nightmare, but Dusty's usual gray-brown blade. And X did want to live. Zero trusted him on that. He tried to shoo the doubting thoughts away.

Ignoring what the adults were saying, Zero put both hands on Dusty's handle and brought it down over X's head as hard as he could.

Dusty deflected itself with a loud crash and a shower of white sparks. The recoil was strong enough to knock Zero onto his back. X quickly took a reading of the aura shift that produced, put that into his formula, and calculated the spell immediately. The white sparks hit the scented oil and burst into a flare of Phoenix Fire.

X felt the fire grab onto his body, but he wasn't afraid. The blindfold burned up and dropped to the ground. Instead of becoming entranced by the details of the flames, he felt calmed. He recalled hugging his father for the first time when they met. It hadn't been awkward at that moment. It had been a moment of relief for X, to find someone he knew would love him. He thought of that and wasn't afraid at all.

Zero felt fear, but not from himself. He felt that the Fire Dragon was afraid of these white flames. It was not a fire like his own. This made Zero love the white fire, and think firmly, 'Get out of my body!'

The Fire Dragon screamed in response, an unearthly sound that came from his throat but not from his soul. And then Rihanna, the supposed Ice Dragon, put her wings around them. Her presence became overwhelming. She felt strange herself. She hadn't yet liked anything of this world, but these two native children were risking their lives to help her. At this point, there was no way she was getting back to her old world. But the familiar flames touched her soul and felt like home.

She challenged the demonic half-soul to battle again, unless he left the child's body.

Outside the white fire, everyone was watching. Roll edged closer to Forte, so he put his arm around her. "What is that?" she asked.

"It's the Ice Dragon again," Forte said.

"Rihanna is the phoenix," Rock pointed out. "X did call her."

"What are they doing?" Roll asked him.

Rock looked into the white fire for a moment before tapping his lips, so the broadcast spell didn't catch his words. "X told me that phoenixes are immortal. This is her way of healing."

Across the field, the black flames on the torches went out. Quint stepped up beside Ikari. "What are they doing?"

"He can't know that spell," Ikari mumbled. "That spell is not of this world."

Behind him, Punk took a careful step back. He stepped onto the hand that Ballade had the silver dagger in.

Ballade cringed, but said nothing. He opened his eyes and finally noticed what was going on. He stared into the white fire in the wrong location. Then he glanced down. Equinox yawned and opened his eyes sleepily. He showed no signs of dying or bursting into flames. Curling his fingers around the dagger... but Punk was standing on his hand. He couldn't do anything. Ballade watched the white fire and Ikari, willing him silently not to turn around.

And then the fire went out. The crest was perfectly drawn out in ashes. Above it were three individual lights. One light grew rapidly and soon blinded all the witnesses. The next thing they knew was a beautiful melody of bird song.

In her true form, Rihanna looked like a peacock made of golden fire. Her eyes were wise and amber. Her body was of similar size to an ostrich or emu, but she had a more ornate tail and fully functional wings. And right next to her were two fledgling phoenixes, about the same size as the two boys had been.

It didn't take long for the parents to figure out which young phoenix was which. X had a silver undertone instead of gold and his eyes were still like diamonds. He was taller, but only had two tail feathers. Zero was brightly gold and red, although his eyes were brilliant blue. And he had five lush tail feathers. The two of them were able to sing, although they were definitely unpracticed. Rihanna sang the proper notes to them, and before long they managed to mimic her.

Ballade looked back at his son. He was still a reploid. Equinox sat up and noticed the phoenixes. "Pretty birdies."

As he said that, Enker covered by asking, "What are those things?"

"Phoenix," Ikari said, sounding stunned. "Forty-five thousand to summon two young phoenix..."

"What?" Quint asked.

"Let's go report to father," Ikari responded. He and the Dark Hunters soon vanished.

" _I seem to have grown weaker from this,"_ Rihanna said. " _I suppose if this is to be my world, I must fit in."_

" _But you're not alone anymore,"_ X said, as a series of chirps and whistles.

" _Can we fly like this?"_ Zero asked, testing out his wings by stretching them.

" _You should be able to_ ," Rihanna answered, in her native language. " _See about flying over to them_."

It took a little while to get beyond doing extended hops, but then they realized that thinking about flying would not work. It was like walking, easier to do when not thinking about how to do it. After managing flights across the field, they landed by their parents and friends.

Rock petted X's head after the fledgling bumped him. "Your spell worked. But I didn't think you would become a phoenix."

X whistled.

"It's simply the form the spell took," Rihanna translated. "It can probably be reworked into a more useful magic."

"So, Rihanna," Roll said, "You will bring back spring?"

"Yes. I am deeply sorry for putting your world in winter."

"You didn't know what you were doing," Rock said. "X has told us."

"I will work to help people in my new home." Rihanna called a few notes, then went on, "May I borrow your children for a little while longer? I will bring them back to you."

"You may take X," Rock replied. "He promised he would come back to me."

X cooed.

Zero made a questioning whistle.

Forte and Roll looked to each other. Then he said, "You may take Zero as well."

"You all be careful." She scratched Zero's chin. "We'll be waiting for you at home."

"I will take good care of them," Rihanna promised. "All right, let's see how you two manage longer flights."

They took off into the air. Rihanna made a loud call that sounded like a gong. At that, all of the ice and snow melted away. Within minutes, grass grew rapidly out of the ground. Other plants went from hibernating seed to flowers in the next hour. Trees filled with green leaves and rivers broke free to run again. The animals were confused for several hours, but then settled into springtime routines. It took all day, but spring came over the whole world.

And all over the world, people began spotting three mystical birds of fire, the new guardians of spring.

* * *

Neko crouched near the ground. He watched, fascinated, as a tulip blossomed in only one minute. Xenophon landed on a new leaf. " _I've never seen spring come on so fast_."

His eyes and ears heard faint movement. Neko looked. Just a rabbit, equally puzzled at the wealth of new life. He looked back at his elf partner.

" _It may make things a little easier on us_ ," Xenophon said. " _But I'm starting to think we should check out that nearby fairy village. Just waiting on random portals is not working."_

He nodded. He'd grown used to life as a mute. But there were times when it was a major inconvenience. When no one around knew the Elf language, for one.

There was another sound. But this one was a marvelous one, a beautiful birdsong. Neko wondered if he remembered any wild song like that before.

" _What is that?"_ Xenophon asked. " _I've never heard... or seen birds like that before."_

Neko looked up to see three birds descending. They had feathers of exquisite fire, the type of fire that meant protection and life. The three landed. Hopping lightly, one of the smaller ones came to Neko and placed a set of keys in his hands. One of gold, one of silver, and one of bone.

The silvery fire bird chirruped happily.

"These are the keys to Shadow Palace," the older bird said. "Find any door with a keyhole and you will be able to retrieve his voice within a few minutes."

" _Th-thank you_ ," Xenophon said. " _But who are you and why are you helping us?"_

"X says you deserve this. They are too dangerous for the children to keep, and you are best suited to use them now."

* * *

"Do you think X's plan worked?" Sandy asked.

Ash looked at the cloudless blue sky. Even the spring sunshine felt different than anything he had felt before. "I hope it was X's doing. Did you hear that if this is Master Wily's plan working, the planet will be scorched by fire?"

"I wouldn't like that. At least with the winter, you could escape by going inside."

"I'm finished," Iris said. Her face and hands were smudged with dirt after planting flower seeds and bulbs on the balcony.

"You're messy and dirty," Sandy said. He dipped a paper towel in water and got the dirt off her face.

"My nose itched," she explained. Then she pointed to the middle of the flower box. "Mom says that's my flower."

"It is yours." Then Sandy seemed puzzled. He looked up at the sky. "Hey, check that out. Those birds have a massive aura."

"I think they're coming down here," Ash said.

The two smaller birds... relatively smaller. They were as big as Iris. Those two landed on the Greensward's balcony. The much larger bird landed on a neighbor's. They didn't seem afraid. In fact, the brightest colored one sang a nice melody.

Iris went over to her plants. "Hey, my flowers are growing already!"

The pansies and poppies quickly spread leaves and blossomed in a multitude of colors. The single iris stalk grew rapidly, but stalled at the bud. Sounding a little disappointed, the brighter one chirped.

"It was a good effort," the older one said.

"I can make it blossom," Sandy said. He touched the three buds on the stalk. In response, they fully opened up.

"How'd you do that?" Iris said, looking at the pastel purple blooms. "They're pretty."

"I have a special talent," Sandy said with a wink.

"No you don't," Ash teased. "That's the sign of anyone of the Nature ring. They can make plants grow leaves or blossoms faster."

Iris giggled. "Thank you."

"That would be Zero you're thanking," the older bird said.

"And X?" Ash asked, looking at the silvery one.

X answered in a positive note.

"My name is Rihanna," the older phoenix said. "I'm letting them rest their wings for a bit."

"Do you want a snack too?" Iris asked. "We've got some nuts and oranges inside."

"That would be good. Thank you."

"I'll get them," Sandy said. "Your hands are still dirty."

* * *

April 3, XX55  
outside Monsteropolis

Forte came back to the shelter he had lived in when he initially followed X and Zero here. It was rubble now, overtaken by enthusiastic plants and animals. Not that it had been secure in the first place. It had just been a place to hide out when the Guard suspected he was around.

Pearl was here. She wagged her tail and licked his hand. " _Good morning, father."_

" _Good morning, Pearl. How is the pack faring?"_

" _We don't have much to do. The normal wolves and animals are thriving. All nature is glad."_

" _It is glad."_

" _How is your reploid pup faring?"_

" _Zero is... he has gone on a journey. Have you heard of the birds of fire?"_

" _The nightly howls speak of new birds. I have yet to see them, although Garnet says she has."_

" _He is with those birds."_ Forte paused, thinking of how to make a new word in Wolfspeak. He had to teach the wolves a word for reploid before. _"The bird is a phoenix."_

" _A phoenix?"_ Pearl spoke it easily, a good sign that it would catch on with the wild ones.

" _It is like the unicorn and dragon. It is a Great bird of Nature."_

" _I see."_

" _These phoenixes brought back spring."_

" _Then they are Great."_ She pawed at her nose. " _Phoenix. I shall pass this knowledge along tonight."_

" _Good. So what brings you calling me?"_

" _One of your father's pack has been nearby over three days. He came in contact with Emerald and Ruby. They are watching him close, although he has done no threat."_

" _I see. I'll go deal with him."_

Pearl led him. " _Careful, father."_

It was Ballade and his son. Forte recalled seeing this nephew from a distance, but not thinking much of it. The child was arranging rocks from a nearby brook into a circle. His father watched him. It occurred to Forte that this child had been meant to die too. That didn't explain why they were here now.

He stepped into view. Ballade looked at him, but merely nodded.

"What are you doing here?"

"Did your wolves not tell you? They have been watching us ever since we arrived."

"Were you trying to get my attention?"

"Not really. I have no orders at the moment. I decided to bring Equinox out of the Tower for a short while."

There had to be something more. Forte bit his tongue. He had to be careful of what he said. Ballade could be forced to repeat the whole conversation verbatim later. So what was he trying to tell Forte?

"He's a lot noisier than your kid was," Ballade went on. "Then again, Zero was always disobedient in not staying where he was supposed to be. We had to retrieve him from all sorts of places, even an armory once. The little punk somehow activated a minitank and treated it like a toy."

Forte smiled at that image, then had to be serious again. "I see."

"Equinox." He spoke to his son as if addressing a fellow soldier. "Go give this to Forte."

"Kay, Daddy." Equinox got up, took the thing from his father, then ran over to Forte to give it. "There."

It was a spell slingshot. It could be disguised as a child's toy, was easier to conceal than a spell bow, and was able to fire off strong magic ballistics. "Thank you," Forte said, although he was puzzled as to why Ballade was giving him something so basic.

Then he took a good look at his nephew's face. He was definitely Ballade's son, had the same structure underneath. But his eyes were both amber. Forte looked at his brother as Equinox ran back to his rocks.

"Hold on," Ballade told Equinox. He put his hand on the child's forehead. "Go to sleep." Under enchantment, he did so promptly.

Forte felt his uneasiness sharpen.

"I want to give that to Equinox, after the ceremony where he gets the honor," he said that sarcastically, then had to put his hand over his silver eye, "of joining our clan."

They were going to install one of the enslaving eyes on a toddler? Forte felt angry. "Some honor."

"You have betrayed our father," Ballade said spitefully. "I'll make sure he'll be able to defeat you soundly. I do wish he was old enough to make the choice, like you were." He cringed at that. His silver eye sparkled. "I should have killed him at the ceremony and interrupted X's counter. But Punk was standing on my hand."

Forte gripped the slingshot. "You want me to take Equinox."

"You won't kidnap my son!" Ballade summoned a spellbow. He shot at Forte. The enchanted arrow exploded on a rock, a foot away from where he was standing.

There's no way he could miss that by accident, Forte thought. I'm standing ten feet from him. Forte jumped to his right and summoned one of his daggers. He threw it into Ballade's silver eye, but not to where it would pass through his central core.

To his surprise, the silver eye exploded. Ballade screamed and tripped over a tree root. Equinox, being under enchanted sleep, did not wake up. Forte ran to his brother's side. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"They won't let me live. It'll report that I was thinking disloyal thoughts and they'll kill me." Then he laughed. "But I'll die a free man. That's worth everything."

"We might be able to do..."

"No, not in time. Forte, everyone envies you. You can't imagine the hell that we live under in our own minds. I can't let them do that to Equinox. Your son put his life on the line and mine lived. Please take care of him and keep him free."

Forte squeezed his arm. "I promise. I'll take care of him as my own."

Ballade bowed his head. "Thank you. And if I have time, I need to tell someone, anyone. I learned something terrible three years ago. As punishment, it had to be my son in the sacrifice. As punishment, I had to kill the woman I loved on the happiest day..."

"Tell me."

"It's about Wily's son, Ikari. Even now, I can't tell who is the puppet and who is the master. I just know that..."

"Ballade?"

He died. His normal eye suddenly turned black and he died.

Ruby howled, soon joined by Diamond. It was a danger call; this area had been targeted for a large scale teleport. Forte gave a short howl back, instructing his wolves to scatter and not be seen. Then he picked up Equinox and ran out of the woods.

* * *

April 9  
Laura Reader Public Rose Garden, Monsteropolis

"And this is where it all began."

Roll laughed and shoved Forte playfully. "This is where you shot me."

"Different times. I am a little surprised your brothers haven't bothered me too much about this."

"They've been teasing you at every opportunity and that's not too much?"

Forte shook his head. "No. I expected them to make me swear a blood oath or walk through fire or something in order to marry you."

"They wouldn't do that. Although we still have three weeks."

"And a thousand things to do... hey, you mean they are going to do something to me?"

"I don't know. But they better not."

"I'd do whatever they want. Within reason, of course."

"Swearing a blood oath is within reason?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't like it, but yeah."

"Don't do anything stupid." Roll took his hand again. "I'm not sure if Equinox is up to participating. He's a little... noisy. And easily distracted."

"And he's a magnet for dust. He's such a charmer, isn't he?"

She giggled. "He is. I teased him yesterday for being so dirty that he was keeping all the mess to himself. So he streaked my nose with mud. He'll be a handful, but we won't be bored with him around."

"So you really don't mind taking him in?"

"Of course not. We'll give him a far better chance then he's ever had before. Although it makes me wonder when Zero will be back."

"And if he's going to stay a bird. It'll be harder to take care of him if he's flying away all the time."

"I wonder if that's him there."

Forte looked up, although the young phoenix landed by them shortly. He chirped happily, then summoned a cloud of white smoke. Before long, Zero and the phoenix reappeared separately. "Hi mom, dad."

"Zero, you're back!" Roll hugged him.

He made a face. "Aw, do you have to hug me out here?"

"Of course."

Forte just ruffled his hair. "You came back in good time. We're going to get married in early May."

He brightened at that. "Really? That's great!"

The phoenix whistled. "We can come too, right?"

"You most certainly can," Roll said. "Although I'm not sure where to send your invitations."

"We'll just come." He bumped his head into Zero's. "But I need a name before I go back to momma."

"I know." He rubbed his phoenix's head. "Your name will be Adrian, okay? It's a special name, so take care of it."

"Adrian, okay." Adrian made a multitone whistle. "I'll come back to see when the wedding is. See you later."

"Yeah, see you later."

"Goodbye," Roll called as Adrian took off. She looked at Forte, wondering if he had told Zero about his original name. Because she hadn't mentioned it to him.

"I have to say goodbye to someone else too," Zero said. "But I'll never see you again. I wish I could."

She felt puzzled, because there didn't seem to be anyone else around. She blinked, and there was a ghostly figure. It was strange; this spirit appeared to be Zero, only grown up. Like the doll from the museum...

"It would be very hard for us to speak again," the spirit said. "But I won't forget you."

"Yeah, me either."

"Who are you?" Forte asked, trying to disguise his suspicion.

"I don't mean any of you harm," the spirit replied.

"It's kinda hard to explain," Zero said. He scratched his head, then said, "Oh, well you both would remember when me and X said we were adults and not children. It was him talking, him and his friend. They came to help us last year."

"You were telling the truth, in strange way," Roll said, although it still confused her.

"My task here is done." The spirit tapped Zero's head. "You should be fine now, with no other spirits to disrupt your own soul."

"The Fire Dragon is dead, then?"

"No," the spirit said.

"But he can't possess me anymore," Zero insisted. "I'm just me now."

"I doubt that half soul is any threat on his own," the spirit told Zero. "But if someone finds him, there could be trouble. Keep your training up and your eyes open. I trust that you'll come out to be a great man."

Zero smiled. "I'll do my best. Thank you for everything."

He nodded. "Then I will be going." The spirit turned into a sparkling light, which raced up into the sky like a rising star.

"It does feel strange," Zero said. "I haven't been alone in my body for nearly a year."

Forte picked Zero up from behind. "Well now you have to become a great man to repay that spirit."

Zero laughed. "I will, just you watch."

* * *

Monsteropolis City Wall, southside

Rock appeared at the top of the city wall, just beyond the greenhouse bubbles. He put Equinox down. "You're a lucky little scamp," he told him. "Most people need clearance to get up here."

"Bug!" Equinox proclaimed. He crouched down and observed a black beetle. "Big bug."

"Who's the midget?" the Wall Guardian asked.

"My soon to be nephew. Where's the 11 Crystal?"

"Over there; I can't get hold of anyone but you on com. It's acting strangely today."

Rock looked down at his handheld reader. "It's emitting radio noise. Keep your com lines open; I'll see what I can do. Tell me when it clears."

"All right, sir."

He looked down at Equinox. "And make sure he doesn't go far. I can't have him over by the Crystal."

The city wall and shield had to stay in place. Although the Ice Dragon was gone, other monsters had claimed the countryside for their own. Master Wily had left many nasty surprises around the world, and he was probably still alive. But how had he lived? Rock was fairly certain that in that battle, the damage Wily suffered was fatal. The only answer was the secret spells of the White Ring and there were no other White wizards left to know.

The closest people to being White wizards were, oddly enough, X and the master oracle Lulani. Lulani had been in training to be a White wizard, but his eyes did not glow. After some threat (Rock didn't know him well enough to know what threat), he had given up on the White Ring and entered the Sorcery Ring. And X showed signs of being either White or Sorcery. Sorcery was the safer route, but Rock did hope that it would be White.

So Master Wily was alive knowing spells no one else could. And Ikari was his son. They probably used his mother's family name to cause confusion. According to Forte, Ballade knew something of those secrets. Necromancy was the domain on the White Ring, so it would be hard to ask his soul, if it remained.

And the Rock Killers were still alive, but called the Dark Hunters now. They were enslaved as Forte nearly was. Rock wasn't sure what to think of that. Should he attempt to free the reploid children of Master Wily? It could make things a lot easier and less worrisome. But it could also backfire horribly, and the control objects had to be well guarded. Rock had thought his war with Wily was over but signs were telling him that it was still struggling on.

"The signal's clear now, Master Rock," the Guardian called. "I'll call one of the engineers to come look at it."

"Thanks. I have to get back to proper babysitting." He left the Crystal's cage and went back to Equinox. "You ready to teleport again?"

"Here." Equinox handed over the black beetle.

"Thank you." He looked it over, then handed it back. "This is a Hercules Beetle. It can move rocks much bigger than itself."

"Hercl'es beetle," Equinox echoed. Then he excitedly pointed up. "Phoenix!"

Rock looked up. It was X, landing on the wall. He whistled.

"What is that?" the Guardian asked. Anyone could see the phoenixes now, if they wished to be seen.

"It's a noble creature," Rock said. Then he was caught in a cloud of unexpected smoke.

X hugged him. "Dad!"

"X?" Rock felt concerned; didn't touch bother him? He touched his son's head. "I'm glad to see you're back."

He laughed. "It's okay dad. The Phoenix Fire burned away all my curses. Even my mother's curse."

Rock picked him up to hug him better. "Your mother's curse?"

"She wished me a horrible life," X whispered, noticing someone else there. "But even that's gone now. I'll still have troubles, but not because my mother hated me."

"I"ll just... go call headquarters," the Guardian said, before walking off.

"We can talk more later," X said as Rock put him down. "But I've got stuff to do right now."

The fledgling phoenix whistled cheerfully. "You do!"

"You're so excitable. Okay, your name is Vijay. I think that's appropriate."

"I like it," Vijay said. "I will see you again many times."

"Bye Vijay!" X called as he flew off. Then he looked off to where there was nothing. "And I have to send you both home."

"We need our pathway opened," a ghostly voice said. The spirit it belonged to looked a lot like X did.

"You're his spiritual friend?" Rock asked, as X was concentrating on his task.

He nodded. "He called me here last summer, and I'm not one to leave someone in trouble. But he should be fine now. You're here to help him and the magic is no longer against him."

"Thank you for all that you've done. I'm sorry that all we can do for you is send you home."

"That's fine. I have seen things that I would have never seen otherwise. I don't mind."

"Okay, you can find your way home now," X said. He touched the spirit's hand. "I hope we can find a way to keep in touch."

"That would be good. If not, farewell." The spirit left and became a star in the sky.

* * *

Monsteropolis City Wall, northside

"You can see everything from here," Sigma said.

Sheldon was wide-eyed as he looked out at the greenery beyond the city. "Wow, this is amazing. Can we go outside the wall now, do you think?"

"There's still monsters out there. Oh, hey, you can see one over there. I think it's a Weyrd Beast."

"It certainly is weird."

He nodded, but soon lost interest in the beast. He was thinking of the last time he was on the city wall. That was when the star spirit had found him and began terrorizing his life. Out of curiosity, he looked at the sky.

There were two sparkling stars. A black spot appeared, and then a third joined them. Sigma's power core skipped a moment. But then he felt, this wasn't bad now. "Hey dad," he called.

"I'm busy," David said. He paid attention to his com cell. "What's with the 11 Crystal?"

"Your dad is always busy," Sheldon said.

"I know," Sigma replied. He hated it.

But Roger came over. He was still good, Sigma was sure of that. "What is it?"

He pointed up. "Look, there's three daytime stars again."

His brother looked up. "Oh yeah, there are..."

David finally paid attention. He nearly dropped his cell when he spotted the three stars. He came over to them, slowly. "Nothing will happen to you this time, I promise."

"It's okay," Sigma said. "They're going home."

And indeed, they were. The stars twinkled in the sky for several minutes, then vanished as they got too far to be seen.

"I won't let anything more happen to you," David said, still watching the sky.

Out of everyone's view, Sigma scowled. In a way, he liked his father's defending him. But mostly he hated his father's overprotectiveness. The rules of the Cain household had always been strict. A year ago, Sigma would have been nicely obedient, even though the kids at school teased him horribly for it. But now the rules were stricter. His parents got on his nerves by hovering over him everywhere. And that short while when he had the respect of everyone in school, well, he had liked that.

The evil soul was gone, but the ideas remained. Sigma often wondered if the alien was right, only seeking his goals in the wrong way. The way his rules were stricter than Roger's, the way his mother acted when home, even how his parents were treating Sheldon, these were beginning to prove that David Cain believed that reploids should be below humans, when it should be the other way around.

In that way, Sigma was almost glad his destiny star had found him. He could control himself, unlike the alien who had succumbed to being an evil person. When he grew up, things would change. He would make the rules, and he would do what was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is pretty much the end of the main story and I've had a reviewer or two who said it should end here. But at the time, I was eager to keep writing and so I did. I still think there's some interesting stuff to come and it can't really be posted on its own as it depends a lot on the rest of the story. This is a fanfic archive, though, and so of course the rest of the story will be posted too.


	32. By the Light of Ragnarok

April 22XX

There were rumors around the main Maverick Hunters Headquarters that two of their oldest Hunters, X and Zero, were missing. Few people had seen them for nearly a year. The leaders insisted that the two heroes were simply away on an extended mission. Truth was, both were in a mysterious coma. Lifesaver found himself completely stumped and baffled as to what happened.

At least they got that version of Sigma, he thought. They had been found after their signals simultaneously went out. They were still on top of Ikari Tower on the Leaf Repair Platform. Sigma had been with them; that body burnt to a crisp. Initially, Lifesaver thought it would be a simple repair job. Yes, their bodies were in perfect shape, everything seemed fine. But their minds, apparently intact, would not awaken to anything.

He checked them over once a day. He examined everything in detail. Nothing worked. He was on the verge of telling Signas that they might never be awakened again. And then today, both pods keeping close watch on them reported mental activity.

Lifesaver called up Signas. Five minutes after getting himself out of a finances meeting, the commander was there. "Are they back?" he demanded.

"They seem to be conducting self-checks, which is more than they've done for months. We may need to wait a bit."

Zero's pod came open, in response to his coming fully awake. Seconds later, X stumbled out too. Zero looked blankly at Lifesaver. "What just happened?"

"I wanted to ask you that," the repair reploid said. "You've both been in a coma for months, with no apparent cause."

"Coma? We were..." Zero had to think. "Fighting... something..."

"Sigma," Signas said. "We found him dead again."

"There was some dream," X said hazily. "Of dragons and winter."

"It's good to have you both awake again," Signas said. "Lifesaver, keep an eye on them for as long as you need to. I have to get back with the accountants and auditor."

"Right sir."

X and Zero looked at each other, similarly baffled. Something had happened, but what? Zero looked at X's hand, which was holding onto a piece of paper. Inside, the message cleared up nothing. 'Paradox averted.'

There was a symbol on the paper, like a company letterhead. It was of a globe, with a black-winged angel holding Death's scythe.

* * *

Layer came into the lounge of Unit Zero. "So you are back," she said happily. "Where have you been? Everyone's been worried."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he replied.

"I would."

"I have no idea where I've been."

She frowned, puzzled. "You have no idea?"

"I told you that you wouldn't believe it."

"It's just strange..." She watched him sealing up a glass domed container. "What are you doing?"

"Building a terrarium."

"I didn't know you liked plants so much. What's in there?"

"Moldy bread."

Layer made a face. "That's gross. Why moldy bread?"

He smiled. "I felt like it."

* * *

May 22XX

Axl entered Lab Room 5a to find X paying attention solely to computer coding. Nearby was a strange glowing... Axl came closer and noticed the strange glow was attached to nothing. It was just a spot of light. "What is that?"

The constant typing paused. "Huh? When did you come in, Axl?"

"Geez, a little lost in your work? I came in just now. What is that?" He tried to touch the glowing nothing.

"Electronic life form."

"Err... aren't we all electronic life forms?"

"No, no, not that. This elf is pure electricity. It is a life form that is only electricity."

"Oh... elf. How is it living?" Axl wondered if poking it was the right idea.

"She's not quite living yet. I'm still working on her." X studied the elf prototype himself. "I've just had this idea for a support unit in my mind ever since I came out of that coma. I don't know why, it just made sense to me right away."

"I don't see how a ball of electricity could live."

"Well the Zero virus appeared as a spiritual form that was just electrical energy. We had several of them captive. I should have thought of it right away. If the virus could manifest just as electricity, why not try to get a helpful and useful electronic life form to assist reploids? And the Zero virus itself was remarkable in that any infected by it could never be infected with another virus. Yes, it was the worst out there, but if I can get this little elf to blockade all viruses and provide useful support, maybe we can have something to subdue Sigma once and for all."

* * *

The resulting Elf Wars were a sheer disaster. X had made the elf support unit with purely good intentions, but before long, methods of elf power abuse spread. Once the Maverick forces got hold of the elf technology, they used it to amplify the virus' already amplified power, and then to stabilize the problems it induced. Before long, only an elf-assisted total-virus-blockaded Hunter could stand a chance against the elf-empowered Mavericks. Many brave souls gave their lives in this power struggle. Far many more innocents lost their lives then.

By the time X figured out how to use the mostly known elf instability problem and the mostly unknown method of remote electrical transfer to permanently delete Sigma, the planet was in ruins.  
But the human population was stable, and managed to start thriving. Reploids of the day swore to never abuse elf power again, and worked hard at reviving the environment. The elves, although subsequently regulated and restricted, continued to live and assist reploids for more peaceful tasks.

Zero had gone into hibernation before the Elf Wars in an attempt to work out the viral form he still had, but X remained active. Determined to make things right, he started his own government, Neo Arcadia. Everyone was initially suspicious of a reploid-run government. But Neo Arcadia soon became known as a peaceful, wise, and safe place to live. People were willing to pay large sums of capitol just to become citizens.

For nearly a hundred years, X's country remained stable and prosperous.

And then came a series of new laws and secret battles.

In the blink of an eye, Neo Arcadia went from a republic at peace to an empire in ruins.

* * *

23XX  
Fox Meadow, Neo Arcadia

Fox Meadow was a suburb of the capitol of Neo Arcadia. It was a nice quiet neighborhood... although today was silent compared to what it usually was. There was a lone reploid in the street, watching a holographic broadcast from outside the appliance shop.

"People called it a republic," the commentator said, "But really, it was more of a benevolent empire, unique in history. Master X refused any special treatment. He even resisted being called Master X for the early half of the century. He worked harder than everyone else and lived below the median standard of life in his country. In that way, no one really cared..."

The reploid sent out a signal. The channel changed.

"The battle station Ragnarok has come to a standstill, according to official sources. All personnel have evacuated until further notice. It seems that the Neo Arcadian Resistance movement had been working for the real Master X all along..."

The channel changed.

"I think Neo Arcadia will be back," a commentator said.

"But what about the registration laws and Anti-Treason Act?"

"The consensus is that for the past three years, Neo Arcadia has been under coup d'etat with Dr. Weil using a puppet of Master X. Any laws put into place in those years will probably be annulled."

"What of the two masterminds, Weil and the copy of X?"

The watching reploid put his hand on his chin as the news commenter continued. "Weil's life support was cut off, according to our sources. He is permanently dead now. But the Copy X seems to have slipped away in the chaos of the past six months. The remaining Guardians are searching for him as we speak. He won't escape justice."

He dropped his hand and made a fist. He looked down at the ground. "It's not my fault," he muttered. "It was only supposed to be three days... I'm only five years old! What do you expect?"

He sighed.

"I'm a f-failure."

* * *

It seemed a very long time ago. It was three years ago. He supposed that as it had been over half his life, it had been very long ago. That was when... and it still was: only his father and one other knew that his real name was not Copy X, but Xenith.

X was working. He was always working. "Hello Xenith," he said, still paying attention to his computer. But when he finally looked over, he dropped everything and came right to him. X touched Xenith's bandage over his head. "What happened to you?"

"An assassin shot at you," he replied. "You'll need this." He handed over an extra bandage.

X ignored it. "Are you okay? You didn't get seriously damaged, did you?"

"I'm okay. It doesn't even hurt now."

"Good. I'm sorry to have put you in danger. I just needed the extra time to go over the environmental report."

"It's okay, father. But why would someone want to kill you? You're working for everyone's good."

"Some people are never satisfied. Would you please give me the report on the speech?"

Xenith nodded and told X exactly what had happened that afternoon. Giving the public address that his father had written out before was an easy job. He just had to read the script that ran over his eyes. Even after being shot (he only had a few minutes left to go anyhow), Xenith continued. He indicated that the audience was accepting and open, especially when he made himself finish. And finally, he gave every detail that he could notice of the circumstances of the shooting.

"What are you going to do about the assassin?" Xenith asked.

"Figure out who it was and why. Then we'll try to address the problem, whether it's an authentic grievance that has gone unnoticed or simply a need of psychiatric care. I'm sure your siblings are already investigating, and they won't fail."

"Aren't you going to punish the assassin? Because it would have to be a very bad person to want you dead." Xenith felt, at the time, that his father X was the best person in the whole world.

"If it's necessary." X gripped his identical son's shoulder; for a moment, his eyes were sad and heavy. "A person may seem bad, or a reploid may seem Irregular. But more often then not, they are forced to their actions by circumstances beyond their control. You cannot punish someone in fairness for something they cannot control."

"How do you know that?"

"You have to listen and look deep." Then he smiled. "Don't let it worry you. Come here; I'll show you how the Justice Department of Neo Arcadia works."

As always, they trained until the desk alarm noted that someone was coming into the office. Xenith went to a false door in back, to where his rooms were hidden. He stayed by the false door long enough to hear who it was. His siblings, the four Guardians. They had no idea that Xenith even existed. Sometimes it upset Xenith that he had to be hidden, although he understood the logic. He had been built, in great secrecy, as a body double for his father to assist him in running the country. Eventually, the plan was for Xenith to take over completely under his own name. His mind and body had been programmed to favor peaceful leadership, unselfish politics, and long hours of tedious and often repetitive work. But that was a long time away, X assured him.

"What will you do then?" Xenith asked on occasion.

That sad and heavy look in his eyes came on then, as often did an air of exhaustion. "I'm not entirely sure. But I've worked so long and hard for everyone else. I've sacrificed a lot personally... I'm sure no one will object me doing things only for myself for a little while."

X did work long and hard for the good of everyone else. Xenith saw this everyday. I hope I can be worthy of being his heir, he thought many times. But sometimes he wished that he didn't have to be hidden away now.

He went to his personal computer and logged onto the net. He checked his IM program to see who was there. Delighted to see his favorite friend on, he typed up a message right away. "Good afternoon, Weil. How are you?"

"I saw your speech," his reply came instantly. "Are you okay?"

Xenith touched his bandage. "I'm fine. But I can't believe someone would want to kill X."

"There are many untrustworthy people out there. You must be careful."

* * *

The first time people saw Xenith as someone not X was at a secret meeting. But it wasn't to introduce him. It was to discuss the Dark Elf.

"I don't want to start a panic," X said. "I'll be taking care of this myself. If she's just disrupting hubs, it will be no problem on its own. The problem will be the public hearing rumors and becoming scared."

"Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?" Dr. Lancaster asked. He was a brilliant reploid engineer that X seemed to trust a lot.

"Will the Guardians know?" his daughter Ciel asked. She was only fifteen, but had impressed X enough that she was allowed into this secret. X had hinted that these two were important to Xenith, although he hadn't yet said how.

"They will be busy enough with their normal duties," X replied. "I will be fine. I expect to take a day or two, three at the most. While I am gone, my body double will be acting in my place. You are fine with this?"

Xenith nodded, eager to prove himself. "I am."

But he hadn't been. X did so much for his country. He was legislative, executive, and justice leader all at once. He took care of the big problems. He often took care of the small problems too. Before he left, he had done quite a bit to ease Xenith's first solo try at governing. But then he never came back.

A week after X had left, a stressed out Xenith took a moment to talk to his friend Weil about the problem, over voice chat. "Can't you find out where he is? You seem to know a lot."

"I can look into it. Would you like me to come over and discuss things with you in person?"

"Yes, please come as soon as you can."

Weil came the very next day. Leviathan gave him a suspicious look when she escorted him in, but upon thinking that it was X who greeted him so warmly, decided he must be okay.

"Things have been more difficult than I thought it would be," Xenith told him when they were alone in his office.

"The first try is always the hardest," Weil responded. "But don't hesitate to ask me about anything. I am here to help you."

Although having his friend nearby helped, things got steadily worse. Weil told Xenith things he hardly imagined before. Enemies became more common. Or rather, Xenith began to realize that people he thought ordinary might be enemies. Small events pointed to a darker future. And he couldn't wait on his father to get back to deal with these problems. Allowed to fester, they would throw Neo Arcadia into chaos. Xenith had to make his father proud.

So he got tough on the shadowy enemies. Especially the Irregular reploids. X had said it was most often circumstance, but Weil said times had changed since X was a Maverick Hunter. Xenith ordered every reploid be checked out and placed in a directory that listed their employment records, repair records, criminal records, known powers, known skills, and home address.

It made such sense that he didn't know why X hadn't done so before. If there was a mechanical problem, the repair shops could check a reploid's health record and know what was going on much faster. An employer would know if a reploid was a good worker. The police could keep better track of troublemakers. Most of all, if the reploid didn't sign up for this logical database, there was a high chance that they were Irregular and untrustworthy.

The Irregulars turned out in numbers that Xenith never expected.

But X was still missing. It worried Xenith to no end. The worst part was, he could only tell Weil about it. Everyone else thought Xenith was X and treated him accordingly. If they did learn that Master X was nowhere to be found, there would be a horrible panic, beyond what they had tried to avoid.

And then, six months after X had vanished, Xenith got distressing news. Weil showed him some electronic correspondence. "The Lancasters have something to do with the disappearance of your father. This proves their wrongdoing, in that and many other things."

Xenith shuddered at seeing this. He recalled the teen, Ciel, and how she had smiled so warmly that one couldn't suspect the truth. She and her father were Irregulars among humans. "What can we do about this?"

Weil shifted out ten of the correspondences. "X may still be alive. I think we should give these proofs of other crimes to Phantom and let him secretly get them out of X's way back home."

And that's what Xenith did. X had been against violence, although Xenith was beginning to see that violence might be necessary. It seemed his father knew that as well: Phantom was a secret assassin of the state. His work, and his very existence, was highly classified. Sort of like myself, Xenith thought often, so he felt closest to this brother.

But young Ciel got away. Xenith still believed that Phantom had held back on her for some reason. Being an orphan and branded a traitor, Ciel went into hiding. Not surprisingly, she went into hiding with Irregular reploids. But it was a big surprise, to everyone, when she became their leader.

Xenith wasted no time in following Weil's suggestions this time. He introduced the Anti-Treason Act, which allowed the passive Neo Arcadian army to become active against this Resistance and any other organized crime groups. The army's funding quadrupled overnight and before long, ordinary citizens could feel safe in that Xenith was protecting them.

One night, the Guardians reported to their father (who, unknown to them, was their brother) that Ciel had apparently recruited X's old friend Zero to help her criminal life.

This caused uneasiness in Xenith. He remembered how his father spoke of Zero. Not very often, but if one got him in a mood to talk of old days, he spoke warmly of his friend and highly of his battle prowess. And the old records showed that he was a master of the battlefield. New records showed that Xenith might become a target of Zero.

He went to Weil, of course. "How can I do anything against him?" Xenith asked, trying to quell his own panic. "I'm not supposed to fight. I've never even practiced."

Weil smiled and put his hand on Xenith's shoulder. "It's not that hard. You have all your father's skills, only better."

"I do?" Xenith felt puzzled.

"You were built as his exact copy, only with today's technology. Given that he was built a century before any other reploid and he became a great hero, you must be able to far exceed his records."

Xenith put his hand to his chest. He never thought of that. He always considered himself weak, meant for a political life. But he was an exact copy... "I must be."

"You must become greater than just his shadow. And you can. But you are right; facing off with Zero on your first try is unfair. Let me give you a bit of an edge."

With Weil's design, the Seraphim Armor, Xenith felt confident in taking on Zero.

But Zero was not impressed. "I thought the original X was stronger than this."

After that... Xenith wasn't too sure what happened. Ever since he woke back up, under Weil's care, things had been different. Weil played him a security tape, which to his horror showed that his father had turned against him. X had been the one to tell Zero to delete Xenith. He immediately put Weil on his government council and told him to root out any more traitors. It seemed he had few friends and many enemies.

Or only two friends. His second friend had been introduced to him while he was still depressed over his father's betrayal. "Is that Zero?" Xenith had asked.

"No," Weil said. "This is Omega. He will be training you in fighting, which you need. Just be careful around him. He's a predator, and will kill anyone."

Xenith looked into Omega's blue eyes, which were fierce, wild, and deadly. But he found that he didn't feel afraid of him. He took up battle training in earnest.

Several months later, Xenith had a meeting with the three remaining Guardians at a shipyard. He couldn't recall now what the meeting had been about, but he remembered Fefnir saying, "Can you at least tell him to go somewhere else? He just stands there and says nothing." Or had that been one of the others?

"Th-there's nothing wrong with him," Xenith said. Ever since he'd been defeated, he had an awful stuttering problem. "Omega, would you m-mind standing g-guard?"

He said nothing and walked off. One of the Guardians said, "You really ought to get your voice checked out, father."

The rest of the meeting had been like that. All sorts of criticisms about things Xenith had no control over, or experience with. He wished he could just tell them that their father was missing and needed to be found, now. If X was willing to explain what was going on, Xenith might not kill him.

After that meeting, he felt like killing the Guardians.

When they left, Xenith went to find Omega. He was with a dead woman. She had a pistol in her hands. He was holding onto a beat up yo-yo, which had apparently come from a nearby trash can. Three dark red lines were across her neck.

"Th-that's impressive. You found an enemy I d-didn't know of."

Omega said nothing.

Another thing that Xenith recalled clearly was that he had fought Zero, again. And had failed, again. Zero held such a poor opinion of him that he rushed off after Weil instead of finishing off Xenith. Of course, Weil had just betrayed him as well. It seemed he could trust no one, that he was all alone due to reasons he had no control over. He wished his father had not gone off after Dark Elf alone.

But when he thought the room was empty and forgotten, someone approached him. Omega knelt by him. "Xenith..."

He felt puzzled. The predator had never said his name before. He didn't even think he knew his real name. "Omega?"

He pulled out an emergency teleport signal and attached it to Xenith's chest. "Safe place." Then he growled and the wildness of his eyes sharpened. "I will kill all those who betrayed you."

But he never saw Omega again.

* * *

He heard, from rumors and those biased news channels, that Omega had gone berserk and killed a great many people. But not the ones who counted: Zero, Weil, and X. Omega had tried to fight Zero, but failed just as Xenith did. They had made sure that the predator was deleted fully.

Yesterday, there had been an irrational panic about some war station in the sky, which was going to fall right on Neo Arcadia's capitol. The city had been evacuated, which was why Xenith could be alone in Fox Meadow, openly walking the streets. His mind kept drifting through his past, wondering when things had gone so horribly wrong, and why. Who had been a real traitor? At least he knew his real friend: Omega, the one who was gone.

Confused and still rather depressed, Xenith looked at the sky. He remembered when he was friendly with his father and...

There was a large spot in the sky that was growing. An extremely large meteorite... or a falling battle station.

"Master X," a calm silky voice said, just to his right. "I have something to ask of you."

Xenith looked to his right, but there was no one there. There was a flicker of black to his left. And then there was a human in front of him. He wore a black robe, like he was supposed to be in a very cold place. He had snow white hair and pale almost-gray skin. In his hand was a staff and on top of the staff was a crystal globe with a black winged angel over it. The angel carried a scythe, like the traditional human image of Death.

But his ash grey eyes had a glint of something that wasn't quite human. Something wild, and fierce, and deadly. The intensity of his observant eyes was exactly like Omega's. "You're a p-predator," Xenith said.

"Yes," the human predator said. "My name is Ikari Domino. I am not here after you. My target is treacherous to his core and has caused you much suffering. But even that will not end him." He indicated the falling Ragnarok.

"Weil."

"Yes. Weil."

Ragnarok crashed into the Government Palace where Xenith had lived in secret for most of his life. Its power core exploded in a blinding light. The resulting concussion wave was strong enough to decimate every building in Fox Meadow, even turning bank vaults into dust. Xenith reflexively went into a defensive posture, although there was nothing he could do about it. But the predator didn't even blink. The concussion wave parted around him and passed over Ikari and Xenith without damaging them in the slightest.

Somewhere deep inside, Xenith felt a strange force. He recalled when Weil had shown him the security tape that proved his father's betrayal. X had said, "Delete that copy of me with extreme prejudice."  
Xenith had only wanted to impress his father with his deeds as leader of Neo Arcadia. But to hear that X considered his deeds evil enough to need deletion, when X had refused to kill that assassin...

And now that pain called out to Xenith and asked him to do something with it.

Ikari looked at Xenith with a calm that disguised a hunting predator. "Weil must die, but he knows I am coming for him. He has made sure I cannot approach him. I need you, Master X, to bring me to him." He held out a gift: a strange black crystal.

He took it. "What m-must I do t-to defeat Weil?"

* * *

23XX  
Neo Arcadia City, Neo Arcadia

Zero stopped at the edge of the crater that used to be the capitol of Neo Arcadia. It was a horrifically familiar scene of an event long ago. But it was no longer just in the past; it was right now too. There was almost nothing left outside the crater, just millions of tons of dust, making the air and ground look lifeless and gray. "I'm sorry, X," he said.

X made some sound that was like aluminum foil being crumpled. He was now an elf and his behaviors were accordingly different. For instance, the glow of his body was dim and slightly gray, showing his distress over seeing this again. Perhaps it was even worse this time, because it was the city and country that he had built from the foundation up.

"I thought we stopped him and got everyone off the station," Zero went on. "At least... no one was down here."

"Weil is there," X said, his voice faint. "I don't understand how this started. Weil couldn't get out of that place, not without my verbal permission to the computers."

"We did what we could." He paused. "That never seems to be enough."

X made sad noises again.

"You don't have to come if you're not up to it," Zero said. Inside the crater, he could see the remains of the battle station Ragnarock. Although crumpled and crushed by its own weight, it looked like some passageways and rooms could still be accessed. But it would take an elf's power and senses to figure out which doors could be safely opened. "I could ask Alouette for Criore again."

His glow brightened a little and he hovered into the air again. "It's okay... we can't waste time."

"Are you sure? You seem sickly."

"I'm fine," X said, although Zero could tell he was lying. "Let's just go get this over with." He sighed and quietly added, "I'm so sick of all this violence."

Zero was torn for a moment. If X wasn't well, he shouldn't come along. But he was right. They didn't want to leave Weil alone for long, especially when threats they thought were dead were displaying subtle signs of life.

Then his attention was distracted by a glimmer of light. It was almost like someone was teleporting in, but was having trouble. Zero walked along the crater, into a good position to attack if the person was going to be aggressive. But when the person appeared... he was strange.

He looked like a hologram of X, Zero thought. One could see the details of his facial expressions, but one could also see right through him. He wore no armor; instead, he wore a simple brown shirt and a simple brown pair of pants. He was barefoot. He had a ruby in the middle of his forehead, and his green eyes were strangely bright, like they were glowing. The hologram X smiled warmly. "Oh good, I found you both."

"Who are you?" Zero asked warily. He wondered if this was a trick of Copy X.

X floated closer. "Do I...? No, I can't know you. But you seem so familiar."

"You did forget," the hologram X said, sounding disappointed. "I suppose there could be no guarantee that you would remember. We knew each other once. I called you both into another world."

"It's not possible to travel to other worlds," X said, confused.

"You've forgotten. And it seems time passed differently for us." He glanced around. "It's been only thirteen years for me, but it seems like over a hundred here. I guess."

"If you're trying to fool us, you'd best stop now," Zero said. "We have more important people to deal with."

"I understand." Zero's gruff tone hardly phased the hologram. "My guide didn't allow me a lot of time either. But I kept thinking, you both did so much for me and my friend Zero, and all we could do was give you a look at another world, which you've forgotten about, and send you safely home. I spoke to many spirits about this and I finally got an answer. To repay my debt to you, I will give you this." A clear crystal sphere appeared in midair, right above the hologram's hand.

Zero took it and immediately felt something about it. There was a power to this thing that he didn't understand. But strangest of all, he knew that this crystal was benevolent. He had no idea what it was and why he felt that way. Zero just knew that crystal was powerful with... what? Love?

X came to look at it. As he got closer, his elf aura grew brighter and less sickly. "What is this?" X asked, his voice even sounding stronger than it had been all day.

"It's a possibility," the hologram X said.

"It's helping you," Zero told X. "I was about to take you back to base because you looked too sickly. But now you seem well."

"I feel strangely better..."

"The spirits told me something else," the hologram said. "There is another power crystal that has entered this world today. But that one will cause trouble, as if it were powered by hatred or bloodlust. Take this crystal sphere with you. If you run into the hatred crystal, which will be black, this crystal will protect you."

"I still can't remember you," X said. "But thank you."

"It is fine. I remember your words and I am trying to be as strong as you."

"But who are you? And why do you look like that?"

"Like this?" The hologram touched his shirt. "Well I'm studying in a temple, so I must abide by their rules... hmm? Oh, my guide says my time in this world is up. I hope your planet's blessings are with you." He bowed and vanished in the same way he came.

"Do you have any idea who he was? Or anything about his world?"

"No," Zero replied. He closed his hand over the Crystal Sphere and felt the strange power within. "But he did seem familiar, like I've seen him in a dream.

* * *

End Of A World

There were many incidents in Zero's lifetime when 'too fast to follow' applied. Usually it referred to his battle style; although he was much older, his reflexes were still ahead of everyone else. This was one of the few incidences where 'too fast to follow' applied to how he viewed things.

He and X had made the treacherous climb up the ruins of Ragnarok to find where Weil currently was. The madman was going on some insane spiel about how he was immortal. Zero was wondering how anyone, even an 'immortal', survived inside the falling battle station. Long ago, Sigma had managed to do so; that was because he was a virus, though, and Weil was claiming to be an altered human.

Before the inane prattle ended and the real fighting began, Copy X appeared. He said something along the lines of, "Your end is near."

Copy X held out a black crystal sphere.

Zero grabbed the clear crystal sphere. Its warm energy began to surround him.

The two crystals flared, seemingly at once.

Weil kept laughing like the madman he was.

And then things became too fast to follow, even for Zero. He saw flashes of light, white and black. For a moment, he thought he saw an angel with black wings. Or maybe that was just an afterimage of the intense lights from the Crystals

He saw Weil shredded into atoms by an invisible force. Not even an immortal could survive such dissolution. After that...

Zero searched his mind, trying to find some explanation for what he was seeing. The space where Weil had been was warping. It began to rip itself apart. It was like... like... Zero's mind tried to put some analogy, to explain. It was like invisible paper shredders began attacking space itself. Torn shapes of reality appeared in the blankness briefly before dissolving further into fine atom dust. The blankness spread, consuming everything it came across.

It came down to basic instinct. Fight or flee. He didn't know how to fight something invisible that dissolved space. So Zero fled the scene. He rushed through the halls until he found the door he'd entered, fifty yards above the crater's bottom.

He stopped there, stunned. There were other holes of blankness out there, consuming everything in sight. Am I going crazy?

"X?" Zero called, hoping for something. He wasn't sure what. Some rational explanation?

He heard sad elf sounds behind him, back in the hall. X was looking pale again. He was floating along, either not seeing the blankness approaching him, or ignoring it. Zero ran for him. "X!"

The blankness consumed the ground beneath his feet. He stumbled, then looked up in time to see the blankness collide at X. Zero... thought he s...aw ima...ges of r...ealit...y, but e...v...e...r...

* * *

everything became nothing.

* * *

Zero found himself thinking. Did that mean he wasn't dissolved yet? He opened his eyes.

He found that his eyes were already open. There was nothing to see.

He stood up. Sounds came to him. Strangely enough, they sounded like his own footsteps, running. They stopped, and he heard himself gasp. Then he called to X. There were sad elf sounds, and he called again.

Then Zero heard something he didn't hear the first time. X speaking. "I made Neo Arcadia great, and then I ruined it. What did I do wrong?"

"X," Zero said. He tried walking toward that voice, but he couldn't find X. He couldn't find anything.

There was a scream, distinctly feminine. And familiar. But... wasn't she hundreds of miles away?

"Ciel?" Zero called out loud. He walked toward the sound of her breathing and found her.

* * *

Xenith wasn't sure what happened. It was like a big blur in his recent memory. But he did remember seeing Weil shredded into atom dust. He looked at Ikari, standing in front of him calmly. He seemed pleased. Xenith smiled. "Hello Ikari. We made everything right."

"Yes, we did. And I must thank you; it could have never happened if you didn't help me." He bowed.

Xenith took a moment to look around. This area was curious. There were stone walls and arched ceilings, lit by oil-soaked torches. However, the ground was made of dirt, grass, and dandelions. "What is this place?"

"This is a place of great magic."

"Magic?"

"Yes." Ikari touched Xenith chest and he felt that feeling again. The feeling that his emotions were filled with power and could be used for anything. "You can feel magic. You seem quite talented for living a life in ignorance of this force. Your magic is in the form of shadows."

"I was told magic was only in fairy tales."

"You have been lied to all your life. Can you deny that?"

"No," he replied, feeling hurt again. But his biggest betrayer, Weil, was dead. That was good. "I seem to be ignorant of a lot."

"I have faith in you, that you can be greater than anyone would have let you become. I have been watching your life, Xenith."

He gasped.

Ikari smiled slyly. "Although I realize, Master X is probably the title you deserve, far more than your father ever did. I want to help you, in exchange for letting me finish my task. These are for you."

Xenith took the gifts: a large leather bound book, a silver key, and a black key. The book wasn't titled on the cover. "A book and two keys?"

"The book will teach you magic. And these keys will instate you as Master and Creator of Shadow Palace. Or, to put it simply, the Shadow Master."

"So this must be Shadow Palace... what do I do as its Master?"

"It's not much different from running Neo Arcadia. Except for one detail: every shadow denizen of this Palace will respect you completely. You need never fear a traitor in your shadows."

The dandelions were silly, Xenith thought. In response, the floor changed into black and white tiles in a diamond pattern. His secret magic made him feel very strong. "I see. I already like this far better than Neo Arcadia."


	33. Star Guise and Neko Bandolier

November XX49  
Guise residence, Kykital

They said there was magic in this world. Zero noticed the complex tastes of the beef stew and the feel of very clean air; he thought that was magic enough. Despite all efforts, Earth's air was always tainted by something, sometimes even by things toxic to reploids. But this... Earth had clean air. Cold and icy air, yes, but clean.

And his sense of taste had grown into something wonderful. Sometime in the blackness, Zero's body had changed to match the reploids of this world, and now he could (and needed to) eat. In their old world, there had been a sort of social eating, but reploids didn't really like it and avoided it when they could. Zero knew hunger now, and he knew the complexity of salty, sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and others. It showed him the true pleasure that food was for humans.

Strangest of all, something happened with his sensitivity to tastes. Sometimes he would taste or smell something and think of something else. Like this beef stew that Ciel had made. There was a sensation to it, or an image... like a half-forgotten dream. Zero thought of being lost for hours in a dark, cold, and spooky woods, knowing there were enemies behind and not knowing if there was anything ahead. X was with him. Something was wrong with X. Zero didn't know what, didn't know where to go. And then when it seemed their enemies had them, someone came for them and brought them to a warm safe place, where Zero had stew.

It was rabbit stew, he thought. But it wasn't one of his memories. Why did he think of it? The only fact that he could pin it to was that in this world, Shadow Imps were deceptive and venomous creatures. But X had never been in this world.

Zero sat back in his chair. X had not made it over. For once, Zero did not feel like fighting. It was what he did, what he was best at. He would even hibernate through periods of relative peace, because he only ever fought. Now he just wanted to sit and think things through.

There had been times when they had been separated, when Zero thought X was dead. But it had never been for long and he usually had confidence in X to figure out some way to survive. This time, there was no way. The whole world had been dissolved, and X had given his life to lead others to safety. Now there were a hundred refugees from his home Earth living on this magical Earth, but not one of them was X. And, no one else was coming through.

He felt the two Crystal Spheres in his pocket. Although they were small and light, they were heavy on his mind. He didn't know what to do with them. Part of him wanted to be rid of them. But they had destroyed a world, and until he knew how to safely dispose of them, he had to keep them.

Someone sat in the chair nearest to Zero. He felt a moment of shame as he realized he hadn't noticed Star coming in. That shame deepened as Star just sat there, mumbling things to himself.

Zero was learning that while magic could do great goodness, it could also do great harm. Star was cursed with a sort of obliviousness and insanity. He thought his old friend Neko was alive, although he had been there to see Shadow Imps tear him apart. Apparently, Zero looked somewhat like Neko, and so Star continually called him that. After a while, Zero got tired of it and corrected him with his usual bluntness, hoping he'd knock it off.

For five days since that incident, Star had been sliding between full scale rants where he screamed and was potentially dangerous, to this sort of lost and dazed mumbling. His eyes appeared to look everywhere, but not see a thing. He couldn't even take care of himself in the most basic ways, and Sonya had to guide him like a berserk toddler. And she had given Zero quite a scolding for his part in making Star this way. It was one of the few times that a scolding had hurt Zero so deeply.

Zero put down his stew mug, now empty. Normally, Zero avoided making friends. One never knew when those friends would become enemies. But, having lost X absolutely, and seeing just how dangerous magic was, Zero leaned over and took Star's hand. "Star?"

It took a moment for Star to look at him.

"Star, it's me. Neko."

"Huh?" Star blinked. His eyes focused better. "Neko? It is you!" He hugged Zero. "Oh, thank goodness you've come back. I knew something as simple as Shadow Imps couldn't stop you."

"Yeah, well... sorry it took so long."

"It's nothing. Everyone will be so happy to see you again." Star got up and nearly skipped over to where Sonya had come in. "Look, Neko's finally come back!"

"Oh?" Sonya looked at him, puzzled.

Zero got up. It made him a little uneasy in doing this with a lie. But the way Star's eyes sparkled and the warmth of his smile was worth it. "Hey Sonya." He shook her hand.

"Welcome back, Neko," she said. When Star wandered off to tell other people, she added, "Thank you."

* * *

November XX49  
Kykital

Every lie, no matter how well intended, had a tendency to snowball into a worse situation. Or even just an awkward moment where you regretted telling the lie in the first place. Usually this took days, or longer, but for Zero, it took a single afternoon. At noon, he told Star that he was Neko. By six, he was headed off to what looked to be an awkward dinner with a complete stranger: Kiito Bandolier, Neko's father.

Star genuinely believed Zero to be Neko, although anyone around could easily see the difference. Zero was a slightly tall muscular swordsman with long yellow-blond hair that almost reached his ankles. Neko was an average height muscular swordsman with a large bushy squirrel tail in a light tan-blond fur. Zero was based entirely on someone's concept of a perfect human. Neko was born a curious mix of squirrel and cat animalist, with cat's eyes and ears, and his squirrel tail and climbing paws. One might mistake them... in the dark, at a distance, without any real study.

None of this rational comparison meant anything to Star, as he was cursed. He had been so happy to have his friend back that one of the first things he did was to call up Kiito. Kiito had been at work, though, but he was back home at three when Star tried calling again. At first, Sonya tried to intervene and explain what was going on. But then Star brought Neko into the confusion and suggested that they all get together for dinner.

Kiito, knowing Zero couldn't be his son, tried to get out of it. So did Zero. Somehow, they wound up settling on Zero coming to visit Kiito on his own, when neither really wanted to. On the bus there, Zero wondered just how many more awkward situations this would lead to.

His first impression on meeting Kiito in person was that he was a private man who was only in the city because it was suicide to be elsewhere in the endless winter. He was a cat animalist, able to walk on two or four legs depending on what he wanted. He had brown-orange fur that was striped like a tabby's and long white whiskers that probably could sense things beyond the ordinary. With his tail curled into his lap and his ears held low, he seemed sorrowful, which only made this meeting more awkward.

His whiskered twitched and his ears rose as he looked at Zero leaving the bus. "You are Zero?"

He nodded. "Kiito." They shook hands. "I'm sorry about all this."

"No need. I know how Star is these days. He used to be like another son to me." He paused. "It has been a long while since I've spoken to him, though. Well, come with me."

They went to Kiito's small apartment. Very small apartment. It consisted of a doorway that led to the kitchen wall on the right and the sole closet on the left. Further in was one room which could have been a good size if it hadn't been divided by a screen for a half-living-room and a half-bedroom. Around in the corner was a skinny bathroom with a cramped shower stall. Any wall space was decorated with photos, of Kiito's wife, of his son, of the great outdoors.

For some reason, there were no chairs. Zero and Kiito sat on the floor on opposite sides of a low table to eat. Supper was stir-fried dark greens, tomatoes, and noodles cooked in ti-githe. Zero had to ask what ti-githe was; it turned out to be a local fish sauce or broth, or a fish something. Whatever it was, it was very good.

They made polite conversation, but neither was really certain of the other. The lie had started, though, and they had to cooperate on it to keep Star level-headed. In an attempt to keep the weak conversation going, Zero brought out the two Crystal Spheres. "Do you know what these are?"

Kiito pricked his ears up, showing more interest than he had all evening. He picked them both up. "Yes, although it's been a great while since I've seen one. I was lucky to see one. Never thought I'd see another, much less two.

"What are they?

"Possibility spheres." He rolled them around his hand. "Their possibilities are spent now, but these two appear flawless. They could be extremely powerful in the right hands. Where did you get them?"

"This may sound strange, but I am not from this world."

Kiito looked at Zero and didn't look away while he told of how his non-magical world had been dissolved by the black sphere and how X sacrificed himself with the clear sphere to bring one hundred people safely to this magical world. After the story was done, he looked at the spheres again. "That is a strange story. But I sense only honesty from you. I sense the lie to Star felt unnatural to you."

Zero shrugged. "What else could I do? He was already calling me Neko constantly. And when I saw him break down when I refused to play along, I saw how dangerous this magic can be."

He closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. When he looked back to Zero, Kiito said, "Magic is the raw power of emotions. It is something we teach our children, but few of us ever think on that again. I don't know anything of a world without magic, but it has always been assumed that even without it, emotions are strong powers, able to both clarify and confuse. Give those powers something to do, and sometimes you wind up with a victim like Star. Curses are illegal in civilization, but not everyone obeys civilization's rules."

"I see." Zero rubbed his forehead; talk of emotions having the power to do something outside the person's head was confusing enough. "At least, I think so. I probably won't ever understand it fully. I've always been a warrior and not much else."

"Even masters of magic don't fully understand it. I'm little more than a swordsman myself." A corner of his mouth curled up in a half-smile. "Would you mind, coming over to the gym with me? It has been some time since I last wielded my rune blade, but..."

Zero smiled back. "Sure."

* * *

Kiito was considered an old one. He was forty years old, one of the first-generation reploids in this world. He was built as a combat reploid, specifically for infiltration. He wore light-weight dark colored armor and his rune blade was made to operate almost silently. His body was flexible and slim so that he could fit through bars and spaces thought too small for entry. Although he had been extensively trained, he hadn't fought for four years, ever since losing first his wife, then his son.

Zero was considered ancient. He was one hundred and fifty some years old, if one didn't count the long periods he spent under hibernation (then it was closer to three hundred or so). For those one hundred and fifty years, he had fought or practiced nearly every single day. He had gone back for his armor; it was tough material, despite being slightly compromised for freer and faster movement. His current body was only slightly above average for power, but he made up for it in being quick, precise, and deadly.

It should have been no contest, even with Zero holding back.

Kiito trounced him.

Maybe I'm distracted by X's death, Zero thought. Normally he didn't let such things get to him in battle, even for a friendly duel. But Kiito had other ideas. "You're not using your emotions."

"Emotions distract the warrior," Zero replied while fixing a burn on the back of his hand.

"In your old world. But here, magic is everything. Magic is rated by aura, which is the power of raw emotion. I know that your technique is perfect and you show experience and skill with every turn. But if you don't learn about magic, none of that will count."

He reflected on that. It was an unnerving idea, that he, once considered the master of combat for an entire world, could be reduced to less than a green soldier.

"I can teach you such things," Kiito offered. "Since your blade skills are beyond excellence otherwise, we can focus exclusively on the magic aspect. Depending on how quickly you catch on, you could be considered a sword master again within a year."

"What do you want for it?" There was always a catch.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll call on you someday for it; maybe I won't. Anyhow, my skills have become complacent."

Zero half-snorted, half-laughed at this. "I don't think so. You couldn't have defeated me on magic alone if you were in any way complacent."

"Thanks. But really, I need to get back to doing something other than just surviving." He looked pensively at the wall, then added, "I always thought of training others in the way of the sword. Do you mind being my test student?"

"No, sensei."

Kiito was puzzled. "What?"

"It's from my old world. Means master and teacher."

"Ah. Shall we start now?"

* * *

September XX50  
snowfield

"Thunder, Neko!"

Neko/Zero focused on the Blue Demon he was facing. Thunder, then. He quickly calculated Thunder Strike and placed it on his Zetsabre. Avoiding being slammed by the creature's fist, he jumped on top of it and jammed his saber downward. This time when he struck the beast's exposed core, it cracked audibly.

It groaned and tried to reform itself to protect the injured core. On the ground, Kiito spun his blade around with the spell Gale Force, to keep it from reforming. Zero used Thunder Strike again to take some blue goo off the core, but then the goo under his feet loosened. He fell through.

But they'd given Star enough time to cast Bolt at the Blue Demon core. It shattered, dropping the blue goo that formed the Core Demon. Quite a lot of it fell on top of Kiito and Neko.

"Sorry, guys," Star said, dashing over to them. "Didn't mean to goop you."

"No fault of your own," Kiito said. He sniffed. "It smells like raspberries.

"Hang on." Star closed his eyes and mumbled some calculation. A light breeze surrounded the other two, knocking the goo off them. It also slightly scratched their skin. "That's a new spell I came up with. Scour Breeze. How is it?"

Kiito rubbed his face. "It works, but it irritated my whiskers." He twitched them, making sure they were all still attached.

"Still needs refining. Or maybe I should be careful with sensitive skin..."

Their com units all went off at once. Kiito answered. "This is Kiito, Neko, and Star of Patrol 212."

"This is Commander Oregon," the deep voice replied. "You are being transported immediately to an area outside of the town Odessa. The Ice Dragon has it under attack."

"Yes, sir," they all replied.

Kiito looked at the two of them. "Well, boys," he gave a sly smile toward Zero. "This is what we've trained for. Be careful.

* * *

Odessa

Long distance teleportation was only done in emergencies in this world. There were less satellites in the air, thus the grid was less stable. They had been in a remote snowfield some 1400 miles from the small town of Odessa, so it took the grid a minute to locate, then relocate them.

When there, they saw why the teleport had been necessary. There was a caravan attempting to leave the town, which was coated in a thin layer of silver ice. There was a fog, so they couldn't see how big this caravan was. Added to that, it was sunny, so the sunbeams were reflected off the water droplets in the air and the sheet of snow on the ground. It was blindingly bright.

The three were soon engaged in a battle against a ground skate, a fiercely territorial monster that hovered several inches off the ground. After a number of other small battles, Kiito called over a public com channel, "Where's the Ice Dragon?"

"We haven't heard a peep out of her," someone else added in.

"She seems to have disappeared before we got everyone here. Sorry guys, but we still need to take care of this infestation of monsters. And I need Patrol 98 to help dig the trucks out of the snow and get them on the regular road."

"That was a disappointment," Star said, on Patrol 212's channel.

"It won't be a disappointment on our paychecks," Kiito answered. "They still have to give us some hazard pay for coming out of our Patrol area. Heads up! Goblins."

Ten minutes later, Neko spotted some tracks in the snow. Two individuals. He switched to the public channel. "Whoever's in charge of the caravan: are you missing two people? A reploid adult and a child, probably also a reploid."

There was a pause. Kiito and Star came over, so he pointed out the tracks. Then there was an answer. "Yes, we are. Jando Greensward and his son Alisander."

"I think we've found their tracks," Kiito said. "We're going after them."

From the looks of it, Jando had taken off this way thirty minutes ago, Alisander only five minutes ago. They were both running, so Neko, Kiito, and Star hurried. Even if they could follow their own tracks back, this fog was dangerous without protection.

About a hundred yards from the caravan, something had disturbed Jando's tracks. Anyone in the Patrol could relocate his path. But his son had gotten confused and went in a different direction. "I'll keep after the father," Neko said. "You two go find the kid."

They nodded and split up. Star could easily locate Neko with his magic and Kiito was best suited to handle a lost child. Neko continued on Jando's path.

Fifty yards later, he found his corpse. Jando had been mercilessly pierced with twenty spikes of silver ice. Neko's attention was soon drawn to the wound that was out of place: a sharp piece of metal was imbedded in his spine at the neck. Where had that metal come from? He looked around and spotted similar bits of metal, including some with a strange substance on it. Neko examined the area, but the only other things were spent flares.

"He's got a nasty sunburn on his face and snow glare blindness, but he's not been bothered by monsters," Star said, before he, Kiito, and Alisander came into view of Neko. And Jando. Star puzzled for a moment what to say.

"I told you already, he ran away," Alisander said grumpily. "Like a coward."

"Your father died doing something very brave," Neko corrected him. "Reckless, but brave none the less."

"But he ran off when we got stuck," the boy grumbled.

"He was trying to divert the Ice Dragon's attack from your caravan. Can you see this?"

He took the metal fragment with the strange substance on it and tried. Snow glare sometimes fully blinded the victim, but the metal was dark enough that he might get a good look. He touched the substance and found it sticky. "What's that?"

"Blood from the Ice Dragon."

"Blood?" Kiito asked. "He finally found a way to inflict serious damage on her?"

"It's this fog," Neko explained. "He ran off with two dozen flares and a metal jaw trap. He came far enough away to safely draw her attention, then set off the flares to make sure she would attack him. In the meantime, he set up the trap and must have used a spell to enlarge it. I don't think they make jaw traps in this size. Then he watched the fog. He couldn't see her, but he could see her displacement. When the time was right, he caught her in the trap."

"Clever," Star said.

"My dad caught the Ice Dragon?"

Neko nodded. "It looks that way."

"But where is she?"

"She must have broken free of the trap. I think one of the metal bits killed him." More likely, the one in his neck had just paralyzed him and the dragon had killed him in revenge. But this was probably a better way for a child to hear of it. Any way you put it, nevertheless, it was going to be upsetting. At least he'll be proud of his father, Neko thought.

Alisander tugged at Kiito's hand. "Can you take me to dad? I... I can't see much."

"Sure." Kiito led him over there. After giving him a few minutes, they headed back to the caravan. Kiito led Alisander, Star brought Jando, and Neko brought the evidence of his brave and clever plan.

* * *

August XX51  
Kykital

"Flowers?"

Star nodded. "Yes, you have to pick a flower before you offer an elf partnership. It will make them like you better."

"Any particular flower?" Neko asked. Some strange customs one just had to flow with.

"Just one you like."

Not that there was much of a choice. Star took a stalk of bluebells. Neko looked around, but there wasn't any flower that he would like to have. After a minute, he took the tiger lily.

The elves of Kykital had taken over a ten-story building for their own community. And quite a community it was. They rigged the plumbing system into fountains and streams. They had gardens where plants were allowed to sprawl as they pleased. They had several bee hives on the fifth floor, for honey was a favored food of elves. And they even had their own artwork, scraps and pieces which may have been junk, but had now been enchanted into bewitching statues covered in jewels.

For the purpose of gaining elf partners, Neko and Star went to the third floor, which was an interesting stone garden. Some elves were content to stay in their communities, but many were adventurous and wanted to leave with another. "Why can't they just leave on their own?" Neko asked on the way here.

"It's obvious why they can't; they would die of loneliness."

Neko always thought that elves were strange little creatures, and magic only made them stranger.  
Before long, Star had gotten the attention of a cheerful young elf named Dace. They talked by way of a speaking crystal, which translated from Elf to English. When Neko had been Zero, he would have considered Dace an animal elf. His powers currently included summoning a mystic armor of spikes and easier wall climbing. It didn't take long for Star and Dace to decide they were good for each other and they bonded.

But although several elves came up to sniff the tiger lily, none of them stayed long enough to talk to Neko. It was much easier when he just had to feed energy crystals to an elf to get it to cooperate. This was a two-way discussion and decision.

"Maybe they don't like your new quiet attitude," Star teased him.

" _Why are you looking?"_ one of the elves asked as she flew by the translation crystal. She paused, then landed on it.

"I don't have an elf partner," Neko said. None of the old world elves had crossed over.

" _You do_."

"I don't. I've had elves work with me before, and I don't know of any with me now."

" _But there is one_." She bowed. " _I am one of the community healers, just down here for a stroll. I could call out your elf if you wish."_

"All right." If only to prove he had none.

" _Put your hands together, palms up. And keep the tiger lily."_

He did so. The healer jumped to his hands to work her magic. To his surprise, a form did begin to appear in his hands. It was an elf with dark gray hair. He had off-white wings formed like an angel's, and a faint aura of light. He had almost white armor that looked old and yellowed. But most telling, he had a cross necklace that was quite visible, even as small as he was. It looked like it hadn't been polished in years.

"X?" Neko asked, shocked to see him so sickly looking.

" _That doesn't look good,"_ Dace said.

Where the elves had been ignoring him before, Neko was now surrounded by them. Some were out of range of the translation crystal, but he heard one female squeal, _"Is he really a holy elf?"_

" _What happened to him?"_ another asked.

" _Shoo, all of you,"_ the healer insisted. " _He's very weak, but he doesn't need to be crowded."_ She turned to Neko. " _Can you come up to the healing spring with me?"_

"Sure, if you can help him."

" _Carry him gently."_ She led him up the stairs to the healing place.

The healing spring wasn't really made for a full sized person to be in. One could fit, as they recognized that a human partner might want to be near a sick elf, so Star and Dace had to wait downstairs. Neko sat in the spring area, his head just barely under the ceiling. Before long there were several healers attending to X.

He answered their questions, although not having seen or felt X in two years, he wasn't sure how the illness had progressed. He did recall that he thought X looked sickly before coming into contact with the Possibility Sphere and how upset he was over the fall of Neo Arcadia. But no matter what he answered, or what the healers did, X never reacted.

They did get him to drink some watered down honey, which was a good thing to them. The final decision was given by the female healer who brought them here. _"I'm sorry; he's much too ill for any of us to heal. You'll need a much more powerful person who knows about elves to heal him."_

"What is wrong with him?"

There was a pause. " _We're... not sure. Perhaps because he is an alien elf, we don't know."_

"Do you know how much time he has left? It's already been two long years."

" _His life force is being sapped away slowly. And your aura is very strong, so that is keeping him stable longer. Still, given how dim his glow is, when holy elves are bright, I guess you only have to the end of the year."_

The healers showed him how to call out X and how to let him hide again. As he went downstairs to meet with Star, he thought of who he needed. A powerful person who knew about elves, preferably about alien elves and how to heal them. There were a hundred people from his world, and one jumped out at him immediately.

Alouette.

* * *

August XX51  
Lunesk

Alouette lived in Lunesk, the largest elf community anywhere. There were reportedly two million living here, with the human/reploid population around two hundred thousand. It was a unique place, with hardly any rectangular buildings in sight. There were lots of circles and pyramids, a few obelisks, and a number of amorphous blobs. These buildings were all sorts of sizes too, from elf-sized 'dollhouses' to a multistoried structure that could have housed giants.

Star had come with Neko. One could not travel alone in this world; not only was it stupid, it was forbidden by the Snow Patrol. Ciel would have liked to come, but she had finally decided to join the Patrol as a scientist and engineer, so she was off being trained. Kiito was busy at the training fort too, as a drill instructor. Sonya might have come, but she couldn't get off work.

"I've always wanted to come here," Star said. "It's as strange as everyone says."

"We've got a task on hand," Neko reminded him.

They came to Alouette's apartment, but weren't answered by a little girl reploid. They were answered by a petite woman reploid. She smiled like Alouette, though. "Hello," she glanced back at Star, catching herself, "Neko. And you must be Star."

He shook hands with her. "Nice to meet you, Alouette."

"When did you become an adult?" Neko asked. "It must have been expensive."

She shook her head. "No, it hardly cost anything. You know the little reploid children of this world? I talked to some people and took a test, then joined them for the induction ceremonies. We didn't know if it would work, but, it did."

"You look very much like Ciel now."

Alouette laughed briefly. "I know. It's so nice. But I am worried about X. I brought a friend to help. This is the Lunar Priestess, Clymesta."

Clymesta was an unusual elf. For one, she was larger than most: where X could lay in the palm of Neko's hand, Clymesta could only sit there. For another, her wings were elaborate, like lace. Where X wore a gold cross, Clymesta wore a silver crescent moon. And she could speak straight English. She was much like Mother Elf from his old world, Neko found himself thinking.

She curtsied in midair. "Greetings, heroes. May the Lady of the Moon bless you."

"Greetings, priestess," Star replied.

Dace added his own greetings, doing a bow while fluttering backwards. It was apparently a sign of great respect.

"Could we look X over now?" Neko asked. "The healer at Kykital said he didn't have long."

"Yes. Let's go into the other room; I have an area set up so he can be comfortable."

Neko set X in the bedding made for him, a soft cloth over warming pad set on low. A few dried rose petals were nearby, as was a dish of water. That water had a strange glimmer to it, indicating it was infused with something, probably healing oils. Clymesta gave X the same initial exam process, asking Neko questions about what happened and how he looked on the last day of their world. X was again still and graying, but Neko thought he saw his wings twitching a few times.

Then Clymesta asked Alouette a few things about elves from their world. As long as Neko had known her, Alouette loved elves and learned about them. Ciel knew a lot, but Alouette came to know more. And since she'd studied this world's elves and their sicknesses, she had the best chance of finding out what would cure X.

In fact, she stated that, "I think he fell into a depression coma."

"A depression coma?" Neko asked her.

Alouette nodded. "There's a lot of magic to elves, even back in our old world. People can exhibit physical signs of depression, and since elves are more magical, they suffer immensely under negative emotions. It's an awful thing to think of. X got so depressed that he could no longer care for himself. He just went to sleep and has been wasting away ever since."

"Why couldn't they diagnose that in Kykital?"

"Different elves exhibit different symptoms," Clymesta explained. "He is a holy elf, from the shape and color of his wings, and the golden necklace he wears. His kind are rare. And he is from another world, so his aura feels different. Or perhaps that is because he was once a reploid. Despite this, I think she's right. It matches the circumstances and symptoms exactly."

"What can be done for him?"

The priestess touched X's forehead. "He has been in this coma for two years. If the victim is found within the first six months, we can usually rouse them with honey and milk, then care for them until they have settled their hearts. But this late, there are few options."

"What about Mother Earth's Tears?" Alouette asked. "That would require a dream quest, but it would wake X so he can be cared for."

"I was thinking of that myself," Clymesta said. "It is the best healing agent for an elf."

"Where can we find these Tears?" Neko asked.

"It could take a while," Alouette said.

"Not just that. The only people who know how to gather the ingredients and make Mother Earth's Tears are the dwarves. Dwarves live deep underground; no form of teleportation can reach their citadels. The Ice Dragon has cut off entrances, and many beasts have retreated into the remaining cave entrances for warmth and safety. Also, the Tears cannot be used aboveground. If you wish to heal X that way, you must bring him to the dwarves."

"I'll do what I must to bring X back to health," Neko said firmly.

The priestess smiled at him. "With that determination, you will. I have some friends among the dwarven race, so I'll send you with a letter of purpose. I would like to come with you, since you must not know the dwarven language, but I have my duties at the Temple."

"I speak Rohkian," Star said. "I studied sorcery with a sky-living dwarf." He glanced at Neko's puzzlement. "They call anyone who lives above ground a sky-dweller."

"Good. I will teach you how to care for him once he has awakened."


	34. Uninvited Guests

August XX51  
snowfield

Long distance travel of any sort was limited. Neko and Star traveled from Lunesk to the Alpin Mountains the same way as they got to the elf city: by jet sled. The SP model that they borrowed was traveling over a hundred miles an hour. However, it didn't seem that way. The frozen landscape seemed the same mile after mile. Every hill and outcrop looked the same, iced. There were trees, all dead looking. There were occasional houses: if they happened upon one in good shape at the right time, they stayed in the abandoned farm homes overnight. Otherwise, they had to make due with putting the sled next to a windbreak.

This farm house had a coat of silver ice on the roof, but they could get inside and start a fire in the fireplace. Star was in a chatty mood. Being cautious, Neko listened for signs of him becoming unstable. He needed Star to be level-headed, especially when they got to the dwarven city. So far, everything seemed okay.

Having been close friends with him for two years now, Neko could now hear Star's curse in effect. Sometimes Star showed an awareness that something was off. He would mention something of the other world as if he believed Neko was really Zero. When he got too close to realizing the truth, the curse kicked in and he came up with an explanation for discrepancies. He would believe his explanation no matter how illogical it was, until someone changed the subject. Then Star forgot the whole incident.

For instance, he now believed that X had helped Neko while he was lost after the shadow imp incident. That would be why, Star assumed, he was so insistent on healing him. Neko filed that in his memory, as it was a reasonable explanation for once.

"His name is rather plain, though," Star said.

"I didn't name him," Neko said. He would have liked to added some comment that he had no idea why Dr. Light named him just X. There was fact that he had been designed to adapt to anything, but still, wouldn't an actual name be nice?

"I wonder who did. I mean, it's kinda unique, but... I don't know."

Dace chimed something.

"That's it. Too simple."

"It's his name."

"You might see if he's willing to change it. You know, to help him out of depression. Change it to something nicer like... oh, how about Xenophon?"

Neko looked straight at him. "Xenophon?"

Star shrugged. "I read it someplace. It means strange voice, which I always thought would be appropriate for an elf."

Dace laughed.

"It is!"

"I can see how that would work," Neko said. He wasn't sure if X would want to change his name, but Zero had, and it might help him adjust too.

They were quiet for a while. Star and Dace held a quiet exchange of words.

"Star."

"Hmm? What is it?"

He wasn't sure he should do this. He wanted Star to remain level-headed. But no one else could tell him this. "What happened the day I disappeared?"

"That day? Don't you remember?"

He shook his head. "My memory of that day is a total blank."

"Oh. Well..." his eyes got hazy.

Dace came over and said something in quiet anger.

"I'm trying to help," he whispered.

"We were in Balna Woods," Star said. "We had no real reason to be there, but no one was going to stop us. You had mentioned something about the crazy old geezer in the woods."

"Crazy old geezer?"

"Yeah, there's this crazy reploid that lives alone in Balna Woods. Can you believe it? That forest is infested with monsters, Shadow portals, and deadly natural traps, and this guy lives there alone. We were joking that we would go search him out and make him come to safety. I mean, he's older than your dad." He paused. "Oddly enough, I got rescued by that crazy old geezer. His name is Eldritch Shadetree."

"That's kind of him."

"He was a good guy, for being a reclusive warlock. Never talked much about himself, but I told him about you, and Sonya. He took care of me and escorted me back to Kykital. But when we parted, he said something weird."

Neko waited. "Weird?

"Huh? Oh yeah. I was telling him about how me and Sonya were trying to have kids. I think. Anyhow, he looked glum for a bit, so I said that family's the most wonderful thing that could happen to a person. Eldritch smiled at that, then said, 'I'll have to think on it. I had a dangerous love once.' But then he never explained that and told me to go home to Sonya. He was really a crazy guy."

Then he drifted off to another subject, having forgotten entirely that Neko had asked about the attack of the imps. For now, it was let go.

* * *

September XX51  
Durst Bagenda

The choice came down to going through monster infested tunnels or taking the snow and ice off one of the mine elevators and repairing the machinery. They went for the elevator.

After a full day of work, both were tired. Star coached Neko on a simple greeting. The 'simple' one consisted of foreign words, holding his hands out (palms up), then bringing them together for a bow of his head. "They have a complex system of manners in accordance to their religion," Star explained, "They will give you some leniency as an outsider, but it's better to try a little politeness on their terms."

At the end of the elevator shaft, Star performed a more appropriate greeting and introduction for the gate guards. Neko did his simple greeting when introduced; they acknowledged him, then exchanged words with Star. After a few minutes, he pulled out Clymesta's letter. They discussed that, hopefully getting them closer to meeting with the priestess' dwarf friend.

Past a narrow walkway was the city of Durst Bagenda. It was an amazing place. There was a shaft fifty yards across in the middle with walkways that crossed on every level of the mile tall city. Buildings were carved outward from the hub, always making sure to keep the structural integrity of the city strong. Enchanted crystals lit up the paths; it was still dim to Neko's eyes, but was probably just right for the dwarves.

And they were fond of statues. There were statues of just about everything. Animals, dragons, dwarves, elves, humans, even a few trees. Neko looked one tree over and noticed it looked similar to tree statues in Lunesk. Not carved, but enchanted. So they weren't a closed society, even with the surface elevators frozen stiff.

Star said the guards had given him a recommendation for a certain tavern, so they rented a room there for the night.

They got invited to lunch at Elder Veis' home.

That required a lesson on dining manners, quite a few which Neko found silly. Like making sure to never use the same utensil for two dishes. Or always picking up the pakki (a salty sugary cracker which wasn't bad, but wasn't great either) with one's non-dominant hand, but always taking meat dishes with one's dominant hand. The others at the table were understanding about strangers... but heaven forbid that he ever take the pakki with his dominant hand. He hoped he would never have to deal with dwarves again.

After lunch, Neko tried to get the thanking gesture and words right, but didn't quite get it.

Veis decided to speak to them alone in a smaller room. To Neko's untrained eye, the dwarves all looked similar. Short, squat, bearded, and rough. He could pick Veis out, because his black beard had a sprinkling of white and gray hairs. The three of them sat in low hard chairs to begin discussion.

Veis and Star had some apparently religion oriented talk, probably required by manners. Then they turned to Neko. "Veis asks that you explain why Priestess Clymesta sent us to him."

With Star as his translator, Neko couldn't tell everything. But he told the bare bones of the story, keeping an eye on his friend's mood. Veis listened quietly.

Then he said something that startled Star. Star asked him, and Veis answered affirmatively with some reason.

"He wishes to speak to you alone," Star translated. "He can speak some English, apparently."

"Fine," Neko said. "Hopefully, we won't be long."

He excused himself and left. Veis looked Neko over, then said, "I hope to be clear. It has been... many moon since I spoke sky-language."

"I hear you just fine."

"There is something of Star that keeps you from speaking clear."

"Yes," Neko admitted. How much English did Veis know? "Star has been cursed by shadow imps, so that he is forgetful of truth."

He touched his beard, apparently thinking. "Rhatasis, the little screamers, you mean? The ones that make one's mind all shadow."

"I believe so. He thinks that I am someone else."

"Good faith for you to keep with him." Neko felt Veis didn't mean 'faith', perhaps kindness or friendship. "This changes X?"

He nodded. "X was not always an elf. He was once like me."

"One of rohk-syi... the metal souls?"

"Yes... rohk-syi. We were close friends for many years. He became an elf to help another, and then he got very ill. I must help him. But I must also keep Star's mind clear."

"You have duty to friends of old and friends of new. We shall help you."

"Thank you. Is there a cost for this?"

"Negotiable. If you help in make, that will be less." Then Veis smiled. "And a new story is good."

* * *

May 11, XX55  
Tulane Prairie

Xenophon's aura sparkled with eagerness or impatience for the story to go on. " _So? What happened at Durst Bagenda? How did they make the Mother Earth's Tears?"_

Neko crossed his arms over his chest. "It was incredibly boring. Dwarves are so inflexible, with their system of manners. They were nice at first, but eventually it seemed they were treating me as a child. I was glad when you were awake long enough for us to move on."

" _But what about that dream quest? That sounds interesting."_

"It wasn't." He paused to flick a flower petal off his red sports jacket. "I had to get you to swallow half the Tear, then I had to swallow the rest. It was really sour and bitter. Makes me cringe just to think of it. And then I entered a dream where I had to find you in Neo Arcadia's Government Palace."

" _It makes sense for my condition."_

"Let's just say that I know you, and although I hadn't been in the actual Palace many times, I knew where you'd be. I tried talking you out nicely, but eventually had to drag you out by your collar. You were being stubbornly self-destructive."

" _Sorry. I had been through a lot. And Alouette was right in that elves are prone to suffer negative emotions. Any emotion of mine seems amplified and can quickly overcome any sense."_

"You control yourself better than other elves," Neko said. "Still... I didn't fight a single monster that whole time. I was sorely disappointed in that. I mean, it's a quest, in a fantasy world. It should have had some hideous monster to defeat."

Xenophon laughed hard. Neko smiled at that.

Once that story was done, he pulled out a small card. "There is something odd that happened. It goes back to what we spoke of yesterday, of that paper you had when we came out of those strange comas."

" _The 'Paradox avoided' one?"_

He nodded and held up the card. In neat handwriting, it said, 'I'm sorry you had to forget due to paradox. The truth will be recognized on May 11, XX55, if all goes well. X Light, '68'

"I got this one back then, before you were fully alert."

" _That's today. Spooky. But we remembered several days ago, about the other time we came in this world as their guardian souls."_

"We remembered," Neko affirmed. "And note the second date. 68. That kid'll be seventeen then, the same age when we met him six years ago by our perspective. Before he was born."

" _Time travel? The paradox is time related?"_

"I suppose. But as I recall the first paradox note, it wasn't the same handwriting."

" _So who gave us the first note?"_

"I don't know." Neko put his arms down. "Every time I think of this, it just confuses me. But I have figured something out."

" _And that is?"_

"We're in a sort of time loop, where a fight between fate and free will takes place. The one who wants fate made us forget the first time. Do you think you would have built your copy if you remembered how he was here?"

Xenophon shook his head. " _No. Or if I did, I would have made him far differently, or not kept him a secret. That was my mistake, keeping secrets from my children."_

"It's in the past, nothing we can do about now. The one who wants free will," Neko tapped the card, "kept us from remembering in Durst Bagenda."

" _X did that? But why?"_

Neko stopped. Within sight was a gathering of people. "Free will. We are in a time loop, but all things within must occur of free will. I did not remember until I decided to give them to X."

" _We're on the side of free will. Good."_

He nodded. "If we remembered in Durst Bagenda, it would have become a fated time loop. For we had a part to play in events of this past year. Not a very big part: we got them out of Shadow Palace when they were lost within. But we had to do it of our own free will. They were already caught in a trap set by fate. If we did things because we remembered them happening, their escape would have been that much harder."

" _I see. So we must not mention this to the children. Not until 68, that is."_

"Our part in the time loop is about to end. I decided before I knew, so it's still a free will loop. They won't be out until we receive this six years ago. But I don't know who gave us the black winged angel note."

" _I'm not certain, but I have a good idea who."_

Neko looked at him. "Really? Who?

" _I'll tell you tomorrow. We're still in the loop. Wait until we're out. Besides, we still have to see if we can get into the wedding."_

"I think we're okay. If not, I can always find Star."

* * *

There were few buildings in this park area. And only two enclosed buildings at that; the bride's party got to have the visitor's center, so the groom's party had to make due with the public restroom. It was a stone structure that smelled heavily of lemon deodorant.

Blues came in. "Hey guys, I got a pair without invitations who say they know you."

Star went over. "Neko! How are you?"

They shook hands. "Fine now, thank you. Hello, 'Eldritch'." The last was said teasingly.

Forte smiled. "Hello 'Neko'. Nice to hear your voice again."

He shrugged. "It is what it is. People expect me to make conversation now."

"Hi Neko, Xenophon," X said, coming over to shake hands too.

Xenophon came down and chatted with him for a bit.

"They're okay, then?" Blues asked.

"Sure, put them down as my guests," Forte said. "So long as you guys don't mind being with the wolves. And the phoenixes. And the Core Demons."

Neko raised an eyebrow. "You've got Core Demons here?

"Mostly for security help. The white ones are no problem. Oh, but you might want to keep an eye on that green one."

"He promised not to make trouble," Zero said. The young boy was sitting on the sink.

"I know, but Green Demons are poisonous and I don't want him damaging anyone. That's why he can't stay past the ceremony."

"We don't mind," Neko said. "Your wolves are well mannered."

"Glad you agree. I couldn't really go inviting my clan here, you know. And I could only get Star to agree to be in my group, so I had to go with a pair of midgets."

"I'm not a midget," Zero said firmly, despite being a small child

"We'd best get you to your seat," Blues said. "And you four have three minutes to finish up before we get started."

"I hear you," Forte replied.

"We'll speak more later," Neko said. He and Xenophon left with Blues.

"Okay, are you three ready?"

X came back over. Zero got off the sink where he'd been sitting. "We're ready, dad."

"I'm good."

"You all right?" Star asked. "Nervous at all? I know I was really nervous at my wedding."

Forte smiled. "I'm not really nervous. Glad to have this done with finally, and that her brothers aren't going to get revenge for their sister."

The two boys laughed at that. "It should be fine," X said.

"The only thing I'm worried about is some of my clan showing up." He shook his head. "But Blues is in charge of security. We should be safe."

* * *

The ceremony went off without a problem, despite being observed from some distance away by the three remaining Dark Hunters. "I can't believe he's going through with it," Punk said.

"I can't believe Equinox didn't trip himself carrying the rings up there," Enker responded.

Punk laughed. "And hasn't gotten his nice suit dirty yet. Watch: as soon as this thing is over, that outfit's gonna be beyond cleaning."

Enker chuckled. "Like every other outfit he's ever had."

"You know who that flower girl is? She's disturbingly cute."

"That would be Iris Greensward," Quint answered. "Nobody important. Daughter of one of the bridesmaids."

"So what are we doing, bro?"

Enker looked at Quint too.

"We should stop the ceremony. It's blasphemy against our father what Forte is doing."

"Do we?" Punk questioned further.

Quint shook his head. "I count at least twenty strong warriors in the crowd. Blues is handling security with Core Demons, wolves, and the phoenix. I count four strong warriors in the wedding party itself: Forte, Rock, Star, and Sonya. Plus the two brats. And we'd have to get Equinox out of harm's way, for Ballade's sake."

"Is that too risky for us?" Enker asked. His silver eye sparkled.

"We could pull it off, but not as we are equipped."

"We could kill the pair from this place with what we have," Punk pointed out.

On some level where he was himself, he hated that Punk had said that. Quint's eye began to scold him for not thinking of sniping the couple. He thought hard to find a way to dodge the eye's control. "Rock and Blues could cut off the teleportation grid at any given second," he finally said. "And there's a strong Patrol nearby. We could kill them right now, but we would find ourselves outnumbered and outpowered. Let's report and wait out a scenario that favors us.

"Does father have time for that?" Enker asked

"Master Wily has all the time in the world. Let's go."

* * *

The wedding of Forte and Roll was exciting and wonderful. Especially for Zero, who felt it was the best day ever. He was constantly near one or the other of his parents, and quite often both. And the instance that was most talked about later was when Roll threw her bouquet a little too high, where a gust of wind caught it and dropped it right in Zero's lap.

He ran over with it. "You can try again."

She laughed and patted his head. "No, you got it. You do what you want with it."

"Um..." he didn't want to keep the flowers. So he passed them off to Iris. "There."

Iris grinned. "Thanks!" Then she hugged him and gave him a big kiss.

"Ew, lemme go!" He squirmed off and ran into the crowd, Iris soon after him. Everyone was laughing at them, and to Zero's later embarrassment, someone had gotten a video of it.

He was found around midnight with Equinox, both fast asleep on a bench.

* * *

Around midnight, X left the main party. Neko and Xenophon had given him a clear Possibility Sphere. It was dead, with no potential. X was wondering if he could reactivate it when he found Rock alone on a park bench. He sat by him.

"You look tired," Rock said.

"I am," X said, trying not to yawn. "I think the party's about to break up."

"Yeah. I'm about up to leaving myself."

"You all right dad?"

"I'm tired too."

"No, I mean you've been quiet all day."

Rock sighed and said nothing for a minute. Then he admitted, "I'm not sure what to think of this. They love each other, and that's great, but I'm still uncomfortable with it. In some way, we all owe Forte, and yet because of that, I can't accept him."

X put his arm around his dad. "What's that about?"

Rock put his hand on his forehead. "Not now." Then he put his arm on X's shoulder. "Maybe sometime when Forte isn't around, I'll tell you. But for Roll's sake, I shouldn't get mad at him with..."

He waited for him to finish, but he never did. X felt an uncomfortable suspicion rise in his heart. "You don't plan on staying around much longer, do you?"

"Nah, I'm ready for bed." He started to get up.

X kept hold of his arm. "No, I mean... you're not going to stay home for long."

Rock leaned back into the bench. "I'm sorry X. I want to be with you, but I can't stand being around him. And when I go back to the Patrol, there's very few places I can take you with me. And this place," he pointed toward Monsteropolis, bright against the night sky. "I was created here, and yet... far too many sad memories reside here. Like my father, and your mother, and the woman I loved before her."

"You were in love with someone else?"

"He killed her," Rock said, the bitter tone in his voice making it clear who he was. He got up. "Let's go. Blues will know."

X had come with Forte, Zero, and Star, but he went ahead and left with Rock. Although... he felt a terrible sense of guilt now in agreeing to be one of Forte's groomsmen. But he had very few friends, especially around here. The right way to do things was muddled.

Rock stopped abruptly before his sled and knelt down. "X, I do wish I could take you with me. If things work out right, I might be able to. If you want."

I don't want to leave Zero; that was his first thought. But X also didn't want to leave his father, and the way things were going, he would have to leave someone. "I... I'll think about it."

"It will be some time. For now... we still have the Whisper Stones."

X touched the telepathic device on his ear. "Yeah. But are you sure you can't work from here somehow?"

Rock shook his head. "I'm leader of the Snow Patrol... actually, it's going to be the Field Patrol, now that the winter is broken. And I'm putting myself back on active duty, which means I'm going to be getting calls from many people all over the world. That is, when I'm in an area that satellite based communications work. And sometimes when I'm busy, I ignore calls or even shut all channels down. But I never ignore my Whisper Stone." He brushed back his hair, revealing his Whisper Stone sitting right behind his ear.

X took the other Stone and tapped it lightly. The one Rock wore responded. "They're twin crystals. They resonate with each other, no matter how far apart."

"My father said they were passed along his family for a long time." He smiled, with a touch of sadness. "He gave this one to me before I even became a reploid; that's how much he cared for us. He was trying to encourage what primitive emotions I did have so they would attract a soul. I would be out fighting Wily's robotic forces and he would use these to tell me anything, even when one of the rosebushes bloomed. When dad died... I guess I was hoping to hear his whispers. But you have it now. I always wear mine, so you will always be able to speak to me."

X thought of all the times he had felt alone or lost. It was a small wonder to think that he might never feel that way again. He hugged his father. When he was hugged back, he felt that he would follow him anywhere, no matter how dangerous, if only they could be together as a family.


	35. Transitions

September, XX55

Cathedral

It was almost time for school to start. Even though they had missed the last several weeks, X and Zero still had to go in to retake the STERE test. Zero in particular had been very nervous about doing so. Was he going to make it into second grade, or would he get embarrassed by being held back to first?

But they wouldn't be finding out until tomorrow. For today, they had come to attend the special ceremony that proceeded Ash and Sandy being given their adult bodies. "So what's going to happen to you?" Zero asked as they stood outside the cathedral with their various family members. "And how long's it gonna take?"

"Well we can't tell you what's going to happen," Sandy said. "They don't even tell us everything, but I guess it's all right. The teacher said it was mostly the technological and scientific specifics he was leaving out."

"I know those," X said, smiling.

Ash grinned and put his armored hand on X's shoulder. The two older boys were both in their base armors for this ceremony. "Well then don't go telling the kids that, all right?'

He laughed. "Okay, I won't.

"But it takes twenty days," Sandy added.

Eyes widening in shock, Zero asked, "Twenty days? That's nearly a month! Why's it take so long?"

Ash and Sandy glanced at each other. X spoke up instead. "I suppose that part's okay. Their adult bodies haven't even been started yet. Their minds and souls have to be extracted from these forms, then that DNA has to be read for what their adult forms should be configured to. No scientist has yet figured out a better way to manage the transition, as the method humans use won't work for us. The humans have…" he paused. "Well, we don't have the capacity to gradually introduce certain systems and configurations into working. It's either off or on. The humans can manage a gradual shift, even if it is rather rough."

"I suppose that's the best way to put it," Ash said.

Sandy grinned. "Yeah, without saying what we're actually talking about. Which, by the way, a four-year-old like you shouldn't be reading about."

X laughed, but blushed at the same time. "Aw come on, you've seen me with those basic structures manuals. It's not like I could avoid that."

"What are you three talking about?" Iris asked, puzzled.

Sandy patted her shoulder. "Sorry sis, but you're definitely not hearing about that for a few years."

"Come on, all of you," Dahlia said, getting their attention. "The ceremony's about to begin."

"Right, and then we won't see you for nearly a month," Ash said. "Good luck with school starting, X, Zero."

"We'll come over and see you when you're adults," Zero promised.

* * *

Light residence

The first day of their second year of school was starting. Zero fretted while he made sure his uniform was on right and that his hair was neat. However, he also had to deal with his younger 'brother' tagging along at his elbow. "Can't I come to school too?" Equinox whined.

He shook his head. "No, you're only a year old. You can't go to school for another two years."

"Aw, but I'm gonna miss you and X."

In a way, that reminded him of how he felt last year, on learning he and X would be in different classes. He put down his hairbrush for a moment and took Equinox's hand. "I'll be back later today, as it's just a few hours. It'll be fine."

"It's not fair," he pouted.

It took Roll keeping a hold of Equinox to keep him from attempting to tag along. Hopefully, he'd get better about that after a few days. Forte walked with X and Zero to pick up Iris, then to the school itself.

In the gym where the reploid children were gathering, X and Zero were welcomed back warmly by many people. A few asked if they had really been the ones to break the curse of endless winter while others were just glad to see them again. Hyper Mayden insisted on hugging X and Zero, and then Iris for good measure. Then they went up to Douglas to get their scores and class assignments.

"Ah, let's see," the teacher said. "Here's Iris Greensward… and Zero Light. Hyper, there's yours… and X… oh right, hang on a second." He shuffled his files to locate it.

Feeling his throat tense up, Zero looked at the folded sheet of paper. What was it going to say? He thought for a moment that he was being silly. He had faced monsters and followed a bizarre request from X because he trusted his friend's spell calculations to be right… he shouldn't be frightened of a score. But it would be really embarrassing if it had suffered due to the events of earlier this year. So he opened it.

It was a whole bunch of numbers, but at the bottom, there was the important one in bold. 524. He'd passed first grade and was now going to be in Douglas' class instead of Alia's.

Iris giggled. "Look, I got 554. It's almost all the same."

"I got you one better," Hyper said. "I've got 4141. And if I work on my weak areas, it could definitely get past 4500 at the end of the year."

"I'm just glad I made it into second grade," Zero said, smiling in relief.

"Here it is," Douglas said, handing over a brown envelope with a yellow maple leaf on it.

X frowned as he took it. "Why the fancy stationary?"

The teacher smiled and silently encouraged him to open it and see.

Shrugging, X carefully opened up the envelope and brought out his STERE report. He read the numbers, then widened his eyes. "What? This can't be right."

"We doubled checked it," Douglas said. "Congratulations, X."

"What, what is it?" Hyper asked, leaning over his shoulder to read it without permission. Then she squealed loudly, causing X to flinch and getting the attention of dozens of kids. "Oh my gosh! You got a perfect 5000! That's great."

"I did," X said quietly.

"That's awesome," Zero said, smiling at him. "So what do you do now?"

"Well a score of 5000 is an automatic graduation," Douglas said. "There's not much more we can teach you. If you check the other paper, we've got an appointment with the guidance counselor for you later this morning. You should call your father so he can come too."

"My aunt will have to come instead, but all right," he replied.

* * *

Roll gave X a quick hug when she arrived in the empty school lobby. "This is wonderful, X. What are you going to do now?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I've thought of a few things."

He told the guidance counselor the same thing, and also how he was studying the White ring and how reploids were built. "It might be late for most technical schools to accept you, but," she smiled, "I think the Wellsprings University of Science and Technology might be willing to make an exception and arrangements for you."

As he had an uncertain look, Roll put her hand on his shoulder. "That's where your grandfather studied decades ago. He taught there a little while too. They're still a very good school and given your grades and family, they'd love to take you."

Ah. He smiled at that. "I'll look into it, then."

* * *

June 29, XX59  
Light residence

Zero crept around the side yard, keeping close to the bushes. He knew precisely where his opponent was, but pretended not to. With caution, he peered around the corner. Roll was on the front porch in a rocking chair, holding his new sister, Solstice. The infant was asleep; Roll looked half-asleep herself.

Finally, there was a war cry from above. Grinning, Zero rolled to the side, avoiding Equinox's landing attack. Then he tackled his brother low, to knock him to the ground. Zero was still small at seven years, and Equinox was tall at five years. But that didn't give the younger boy any advantage.

Roll watched them, to make sure they were just roughhousing and not actually fighting. Forte watched them too, but with different purpose. After Zero let Equinox pin him to the ground for a few seconds, he darted in. Zero managed to get out from being pinned and got away. Equinox, trying to figure out what had happened, got grabbed, pinned to the ground, and then tickled.

"Dad!" he cried out, just before bursting out laughing. "No tickling!"

"Who said so?" Forte teased.

"I'm fighting him," Zero called out, just before rushing at Forte's side.

They wrestled until the boys got Forte to the ground; Zero had his left shoulder and Equinox had his right. "You're our prisoner now," Equinox said, in a voice that he hoped sounded tough.

"Okay, I concede defeat," Forte said, making himself sound weary. "What horrible punishment are you going to inflict on me? Savage tickling?"

"You can make him do the laundry," Roll suggested.

He made himself look horrified. "No, not the laundry! I'll do anything but the laundry. Please have mercy on me, fellow warriors."

"You're doing the laundry!" both of them said merrily.

"Oh fine. I suppose I ought to take my punishment with honor." Then he grabbed both of them and picked them up when he stood.

"Hey, put us down!" Zero said, struggling.

"You're doing the laundry with me."

Zero groaned.

Equinox, who had managed to turn himself upside down, pointed. "Hey, X is back early. Hi X!"

X smiled weakly at them. "Hello. Busy day?"

"More or less. The mall quiet?

"Kinda. I wanted to be here when my dad got in."

"Rock's coming back home?" Roll asked as they came up.

"I wanted to talk to him in person, so he got the afternoon off. I hope it's okay."

"No, that's fine."

The front door opened and Rock came out. "Good afternoon. I hope you don't mind me being back, sis."

Roll smiled. "No problem. Besides, you never got to see Solstice."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

He came out; Forte caught the door. "Well, if you'll excuse us, we," he stressed we, "have a heroic task of laundry to do. You two go grab the sheet carts from the guest rooms."

"I'll get it done before you!" Zero challenged Equinox.

"No you won't!" They ran inside, Forte following.

Roll handed her daughter over to Rock. Solstice was just over a week old. She had long bright purple hair, like her father, and green eyes. She hadn't been born with a base armor. It was usually considered a disadvantage, but Roll didn't mind. Forte would rather her be protected, but then agreed that she didn't have to have fight if she didn't want to.

"She looks like Forte, only cuter," Rock said.

Roll laughed at that. "She does, doesn't she? But X hasn't given her a psychic reading yet, even though he talked about it several months ago."

Nervously, X looked down. "I can't really do that right now."

"What's bothering you, dear?" Roll took his hand. "You've been stressed out ever since she was born. I have noticed."

"It's not Solstice."

"I'm going to be taking him out to Fort Cerise for a few weeks," Rock said.

"I can go?"

Rock nodded.

"But that's the Field Patrol main base," Roll said. "I thought very few civilians could go in."

"You will have restricted access, but this seems to be the best way. He's having some problems, and I feel it's best that he be close to me until things clear up."

"Is it that serious?"

X rubbed his forehead. "My third eye has been darkened. I've only had it do that one other time... just before I saw the Paranoid Mirror."

* * *

June 29, XX59

Zero came into X's room as he was packing. "How long are you going to be gone?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe all summer."

"Does it have to do with all your nightmares?"

He nodded. "And the fact that I can't give a good psychic reading to anyone. Lulani even said I can't work as his assistant until my eye clears up. I've been accidentally jinxing people."

"So you haven't read any signs for Solstice."

"Right; I could jinx her badly at this time in her life."

Zero sat on the bed, quiet for a bit. "Well, um..."

"We'll be okay. I'll be protected at Fort Cerise, and I told your dad to watch for anything suspicious. At least, I hope we'll be okay. I can't really tell."

"Yeah, but... I've had this reoccurring dream ever since my sister was born."

X sat by him. It could just be anxiety to have a new child around; that was normal childhood problems. But the timing of it, when X's eye darkened, may indicate something beyond normal problems. "Go ahead and tell me it."

* * *

Zero Light stood in front of a broken display case where Zero Wily had once stood. There was no broken glass, but there were lots of strange black worms crawling on the floor. And the doll was missing.

Nervous, he moved on to the next room. It was a display of various reploid armors. To his surprise, it included the Fire Dragon and Ice Dragon armors from the last days of winter. They were as he remembered them, except the hair ribbons were still. Those teasing ribbons; Zero recalled how they would slip away as he tried to get them out. Some of the black worms had crawled into this room.

Another armor in the room caught his eye. This one was stunning. It appeared to be made of jewels. Diamonds and rubies mostly, but here was a line of black obsidian, and there was some topaz and turquoise. Who wore this armor? It must be very expensive. Would it hold any good in battle, or was it just for show?

After gawking over the jeweled armor, he entered a hall. There was a picture of Rihanna as the Ice Dragon on the wall. On the floor right below it were drops of blood and oil.

Zero knelt down by the drops and noticed a black worm crawling by. There was a puddle of blood and oil in the doorway, as if a reploid had been heavily injured there. Or maybe even killed. Concerned, he followed the trail into the display room across from Rihanna's picture.

It was a display of bones, but Zero hardly noticed what sort of bones. He found the injured reploid. Or was he dead? His wounds were leaking slowly and his body was still. He was a catlike person wearing a Field Patrol uniform. One of the worms was on him.

Cautious, Zero touched the patrolman's face. His organic parts promptly turned to dust, leaving behind the uniform, his metal skeleton, and the mechanical components of his bio-mechanical body. Except that they would never work without the organic parts.

He looked around the bone display room and realized there were other reploid skeletons lying on the floor, seven that he could see. They were all adults, but Zero still felt like running away before he got turned into a skeleton too.

And then the skeletons all came to life. The patrolman by Zero sat up and looked at him. His skull was empty, although he could feel the lost eyes looking right at him. Startled, he stepped back, then stopped when he heard someone behind him. He turned.

Rihanna's picture was burning with blood red flames. And someone was wearing the jeweled armor. That someone scared Zero senseless.

"Give it back to me," a deep haunting voice said from the jeweled armor.

"I-I don't have anything of yours," Zero stumbled over.

"Give it back."

He tried to run, but the patrolman's skeleton and one other caught him. They were bringing him to their master. Zero screamed.

And woke up.

* * *

Telling it was enough to give Zero chills. He hated to admit he'd been scared by only a dream. But when he had it nearly every night for over a week, and he'd never been able to run away or fight, it worried him. Now X was leaving.

He looked over at his cousin and saw that he was pale.

"X?"

X spent a moment getting a grip on himself. "That explains what's been going on. But, you're in more danger than I am."

"What does it mean?"

"Sometime this summer, the Fire Dragon will awaken."

After some negotiation and persuasion, Zero went to Fort Cerise with X and Rock.

* * *

July 16, XX59  
Fort Cerise

Most of the time, Fort Cerise was a boring place for a pair of young boys. They weren't allowed beyond Basement Level 2, the living quarters of those stationed here. There was an entertainment area, but the computers there were for the patrolmen. And the television had channels that were of interest to adults, but not children. There were a couple of pool tables, but Zero wasn't tall enough to play. So if Rock was busy upstairs, they usually were in the library.

But sometimes, a patrolman would be off-duty and wouldn't mind telling them stories. Those were interesting, especially when Rock was around. He could outdo anyone on stories of monsters or battles. Since Zero was around, he was careful when choosing what he told.

This evening, X and Zero were listening to Rock and three others tell stories. Signas was there, only for tonight. With him was a human engineer, Martin Bay. The third was a buglike reploid named Boomer Kuwanger, the leader of Patrol 118. The three of them, plus the rest of Boomer's patrol, were relocating to Fortress Eagle, a former stronghold of Master Wily.

"So what've you got these two rascals out here for?" Signas asked. "X going to help with the satellite program?"

Martin laughed. "That is taking dozens of professionals, sir. Not kids."

"Don't underestimate this one; he's a genius. I taught him once."

X smiled. "I don't know enough about satellites to help stabilize the world's information and teleport grids. If I did, I would help."

"They're here for protection," Rock explained. "There's a strong possibility that the Fire Dragon will awaken this summer; if that happens, he'll likely try to kill them."

Boomer's feelers twitched. "It is true that Master Wily had another overpowered dragon to summon?"

"Yes," Signas said.

"At least you kids are in one of the safest places on the globe," Martin said. "Ain't much that can get into Cerise."

Zero felt uneasy at hearing this and wasn't sure why. He noticed that X was now squinting, and that the Patrol leader's feelers were still twitching. "Are you sure about that?" Zero asked.

"This place has never been broken into before," Rock said. "But that always worries me; we won't know how a successful invasion would go."

"Something is peculiar about tonight," Boomer said.

"Dad?" X rubbed his eyes. "I can't see."

Rock passed his hand in front of X's face, but he didn't follow. "You can't see?"

"I don't know what happened. My eyes got cold and everything blurred. And now I can't see."

"Do you have psychic powers, kid?" Boomer asked.

"Yes, I'm a visionary oracle. Why?"

Boomer looked at Rock. "We need to get the fort on full alert. We're going to be invaded by shadows shortly. They've blanketed the senses of any mystic, which is why he's gone blind and I can no longer smell. I've had it happen prior to a rather large battle once."

"All right. Signas, come up with me to the command center." Rock put his hand to his chin, then asked, "Boomer, do you mind protecting X and Zero down here? I may have to split your patrol up to help out others."

"Fine by me, Master Rock. Except, may I request that Andy come down to assist? Between the two of us, you need not fear for them."

"I'll send him down. Thank you." Rock and Signas left for the command center, while Martin presumably went to the medical area to assist there.

Zero touched his belt where he kept Dusty Blade on him. "I can fight shadows," he told Boomer. "I've been taught by the King, and X can imbue weapons with sunlight's power."

"Is that so?" Boomer asked. "Then we should have no problems down here. You should stick by your friend's side and defend him."

"I will. Who's Andy?"

Boomer smiled slightly. "His name is actually Armored Armadillo, but everyone calls him Andy. He's the new guy, not much older than you two. But I'm confident in his abilities."

"I don't like this," X said. "What if the Fire Dragon comes to life tonight? I won't be able to sense anything about him like this. If he does awaken tonight, I won't be able to trace him."

"He won't be taking me," Zero asserted. "Don't worry about that."

"But I've had a vision many times. A flaming sword comes down and divides us on separate paths. We can't find each other until..."

"Until what?" Zero asked.

X shivered. "Until one of us or the Fire Dragon dies."

* * *

July 16, XX59  
Monsteropolis Museum of Magic and Technology

A museum guard stopped by the display of Zero Wily. Everything was secure. Good. Several seers had given them tips that someone may be out to steal this old doll. It was a dangerous reploid and it was best it remain sleeping.

The radio spoke with the voice of the head night guard, Valiant Vixen. "Clarence, would you go show Turquoise how to unlock the level A locks? The Field Patrol has requested the Fae Jiun Sun Pendant."

"Right away, m'am."

Shabrengo, still by Zero Wily, brought out to radio to ask, "Do they have proper clearance on removing it?"

"It's Master Rock asking, Brennie. Fort Cerise is being attacked by shadows as we speak."

"I see."

"That's a bold move," another night guard, Luxor, added. "Wonder what they got at Cerise that the shadows want."

"We can ask later. Everyone keep alert tonight, especially you Brennie."

"Right, I'm keeping this area secured." He gave another look to Zero before moving to the next display.

It was a circular mirror on a triangle brace. It did not seem like much, but a look at the back revealed that this was an aura reflector used to study spell resistance. Master Wily had discovered much about battle magic using items like this. Much of that knowledge was still unknown to those outside the clan.

Right now, it was flat, reflecting Shabrengo perfectly. He was a reploid based on the arctic fox. He had used this fact to try getting a date with Valiant, who was based off a red fox. That hadn't worked. At least, not yet. He flicked his white tail and smiled at his reflection, thinking that sooner or later, she would give in.

"The Sun Pendant is away," Clarence called over the radio. "Are we increasing security measures until it returns?"

"Not tonight," Valiant replied. "We're already on high alert due to the seers' advice."

Another thought caused him to search the mirror, but he found nothing. He spoke over the radio again. "Hey, any of you guys seen the ghosts tonight?"

"There's ghosts here?" Turquoise Turtle said, nervous. It was her first night on guard duty.

"No poltergeists, but there are usually ghosts," Shabrengo said.

"And Brennie knows every single one of them," Luxor teased. "He actually attracts ghosts."

"Oh please: the dead wander where they will. I haven't found any tonight, not even the Crier. How about you guys?"

"I haven't seen any," Clarence said. "It is odd, now that you mention it."

"Pale Betty's usually around my area, but she's not tonight," Luxor said.

"They could just be out for the night," Valiant said. "It is the full moon, you know."

"Right, but usually I know when they'll be away." He paused. "The museum's spookier without them."

"Try telling that to the daytime guests."

"Can it, Luxor."

Brennie put up his radio. It was spooky, and lonely, without the ghosts to talk to. He had always had a fascination with ghosts, and ghosts held him with equal curiosity. He had even been fired from a grave keeper job because he attracted too many ghosts. But the museum did not mind, so long as the ghosts were only about during the night.

He was about to move on when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. For a moment, it seemed like the aura reflector mirror was reflecting someplace else. But when he looked directly at it, it was normal. Strange. He looked back to Zero's display area. Still empty, still secure. Shabrengo moved on.

* * *

Behind the snow fox guard, the mirror's reflection changed again, to a black and white garden. The surface shimmered. A gremlin made of shadow came out and peered around. It gave an all clear. Other shadow gremlins came out. Without the Fae Juin Sun Pendant here, there was nothing to keep them out.

A few shadow elves came, out as well as one gremlin with a creature of an entirely different sort. It had been human at one time, but now resembled a feral beast. After it and its guard came a brighter shadow elf, one that was more powerful than the rest. He brought something too: a ghostly ball of fire. Last of all was the group's leader.

Shadow Master Xenith came out of the mirror and into the museum.

He may have been tricked out of the official exit to Shadow Palace, but he found other methods. Mirror warping was the most useful, as any reflective surface could be accessed. Once he got out, he rediscovered why the Palace was much better. Still, it was good to take a trip outside every now and then, and it was on one of those trips that he got a lucky break. One that didn't involve anyone manipulating him.

Thus far, he had always been the manipulated, but now he was the manipulator, and he rather liked it. It wasn't too hard either. But Xenith couldn't afford to get comfortable now. The three Shadow Dragons he'd sent to Fort Cerise would keep the Sun Pendant away, but the museum was tightly guarded tonight. And if the ghosts came back early, the game was up.

He and his crew of gremlins and elves went into the display of Zero Wily. Xenith touched the glass, checking the security spells. Once he felt certain it was fine, he turned the glass to shadow. His captive growled.

"Be patient," he muttered to it. "They were going to kill you anyhow. I'm giving you a higher purpose. Now, Bloody Eye."

"Aye, sir," the brightest elf said. He brought his ghostly flame to the doll and nudged it inside the body. "Receive what was stolen from ye, Fire Dragon."

Xenith touched Zero's eyes. "Awaken to the life denied thee."

His eyes opened. They were blank, as if still asleep. Although awake, Zero Wily did nothing.

"What's the deal?" one of the other elves asked. "He's supposed to come alive."

"He can't, not with the half soul that he has," Xenith explained. "That is why we need this degenerate. Put him on the ground."

The gremlins cawed and forced the captive down. The feral human fought back with more power than he seemed to have. But it was a dozen on one, so they got him still. Xenith formed a goblet out of ambient shadows around the display.

Bloody Eye landed on the captive's forehead to check his aura closely. "Your half-life is better used elsewhere, vampire. All righty, Master Xenith, all's clear."

"Good. You lot," he instructed the other elves, "get him out of there without tripping any alarms. He needs to be sitting down on the floor."

"I'm ready, sir," Bloody Eye said. He was the only one Xenith had trusted knowing the full plan of tonight.

The master nodded, then turned his right arm into shadows. This enabled him to place his hand into the vampire's body and pluck out his heart. It was out so fast that the vampire didn't have time to scream before his body withered into dust. Still working quickly, Xenith wrung out the blood stored there. At the same time, Bloody Eye captured the vampire's half soul before it disintegrated. It was placed in the goblet with the heart blood.

Then he turned his attention to Zero Wily, who was silently kneeling beside him. As Xenith thought, the doll could only be moved by command magic or the presence of the soul connected to him. The intended solution to this problem had been to sacrifice the other soul, but that had fallen through. This solution was much better. Before the remains of the vampire evaporated, he forced the doll to drink them.

"Night leads to Day and Day leads to Night," he recited an ancient spell. Bloody Eye echoed him; the other elves soon followed. "It has been Day, now let it be Night. The time for the living to have no rest; let the Predator of the Night awaken."

Vampires and other undead were typically like the captive they brought in. Stupid but vicious. Some of them weren't even vicious, more like mosquitoes among the living. But about once a century, a true monster of a vampire was summoned, one who remained intelligent, cunning, and mostly sane. They were more powerful than their mindless cousins and they could terrorize the living in a way few other monsters could. They were true Predators.

After several minutes in what looked like a seizure, the doll was fully awake. He looked at Xenith with a wild ferocity that matched the feral vampire's, but held more intelligence and cunning. The Shadow Master smiled.

The reploid vampire growled and lunged at him.

Xenith turned his whole body to shadows, then moved behind him. "Stop this instant."

He held still, puzzled and spiteful.

He rematerialized. "I am your new master, Xenith. Your old master gave up on you, so he and the name he gave you means nothing. You are now my Predator, Omega."

Omega growled, but then looked sharply at the entrance. Someone was there.

* * *

Shabrengo had grown more and more uneasy. It wasn't just the lack of ghosts. The whole museum seemed darker; the shadows became vivid and stark. His fur stood on end as he began to feel something wasn't right.

Maybe the lack of the Sun Pendant and the ghosts was messing with his imagination. Or maybe the shadows had indeed grown powerful. "I'm going back to Zero's display," he told Valiant. "I get the feeling that something isn't right in this area."

"Want me to send Luxor down to help?"

"Yes, that would be appreciated." He put his radio in his pocket and entered the suspect display.

Someone was speaking, but it was in a wispy sort of voice, like an echo. Not a ghost's voice; there wasn't a ghost around. Maybe a shadow's. He'd never heard a shadow speak before.

The lights of Zero's display were bright, but the shadows were black. And they seemed to be moving, as if alive. Shabrengo saw a faint outline of a person, like a ghost, but then it developed into a real reploid. But the one growling soon got his full attention. It was Zero, out of his display case, crouched on the ground. The last time he got out, the doll had attacked a group of students and their teacher. They had been lucky to all get out alive. Shabrengo went to hit the panic button on his radio.

Omega attacked.


	36. Missing Persons

uly 17, XX59

Monsteropolis Museum of Magic and Technology

After his fourth victim, Omega's mind cleared up from that strange hunger. He dropped the female fox to the floor. She wasn't quite dead; he hadn't killed any of the four. He wasn't sure why. Maybe he instinctively knew that the last bit of aura would taste bad. That third one, the human, he had tasted different. Not bad, but different. He preferred the reploids.

There was a fifth guard. He had sensed her, but hadn't found her. He contemplated going after her for a little while. But no. He was no longer hungry and there were more important things to do. Like finding Zero Light.

He knew the child was important. He was supposed to have come to life by killing him after Zero had ritualistically killed or witnessed the killing of two others. He knew that, but it hadn't happened that way. Who did Xenith think he was to bypass Master Wily's will? Or was he right, in that his old masters no longer mattered?

" _Omega,"_ a shadow elf called. Three of them had been ordered to follow him. " _We should go back to the Palace."_

"I'm not going," he told them.

" _But Master told us to return,"_ another whined. " _Dawn is near."_

"I don't care." He left through the main entrance.

The city seemed ablaze in aura. Omega's senses were overpowered for a few seconds. He could thrive here for decades, maybe even forever if he was resourceful. Although his tastes were tempted, he was satisfied for now. He began screening the population to find that one he absolutely needed.

He knew that child, had shared his body for several months. And he knew that he wasn't complete. He only had half his soul and... some strange parasitic partial soul. That parasite was the one who craved blood and aura. And while the power and the pleasure of its habits were intoxicating, he still wasn't whole. Zero had the other half of his soul. Omega was certain of that. He had to find that child, and how convenient that he lived here...

Except that Zero was no longer in Monsteropolis.

Scowling, he kicked the concrete barrier post. It was designed to keep anyone from driving close to the museum and could withstand being run into by a semi-truck. A large chunk of it came off to Omega's kick.

" _We have to go_ ," the elves pleaded. " _Come back inside."_

"Then you go."

Where could he be? He had to be alive. He could have moved away. But how was Omega to find him now? Frustrated, he looked up and saw sunlight on the tops of nearby skyscrapers. What were those silly elves so worried about?

The scent of aura was suddenly gone.

Omega wondered about that. Had he grown used to the scent now? People were still here. That much was apparent by the delivery vehicles that were starting their routes. He looked back up at the golden sunlight, sliding down the skyscrapers as the sun rose. It made him dizzy.

And weak. He looked down at the concrete barrier that he had kicked down just a minute ago. Somehow, he felt like he couldn't even lift the piece that was there. "What's going on?"

Two of the shadow elves grabbed his hair and tugged him back to the museum. The third came in front of his face. " _We have to go now! The sun will kill us all."_

"I am the Fire Dragon. I can't be killed by the sun."

" _You're an undead and you're a shadow. You don't stand a chance against it. Neither do we. Come on, before it reaches the street."_

As much as he didn't want to obey the shadows and their Master, he was growing weaker the closer the sun came to street level. Omega consented and ran back inside. "Now what? Most of the guards are unconscious and someone will come to check on them."

" _Let's go in the bathroom."_ The three elves flew that way.

When he entered, he found them in front of the mirror. " _Okay, Omega, listen closely. You need to remember this spell."_

Another went forward and touched the mirror. " _Reflector of the world's sorrows and woes, Reflect me to the Palace of Shadows."_

The mirror shifted and displayed a black and white garden. The three elves went inside; Omega followed. It was a picture perfect English rose garden, if the picture were taken with an antique camera. The mirror by his side looked antique enough, and the mansion beyond matched perfectly. It had immense columns, grotesque gargoyles, a lavish entryway... and there was a whiff of that powerful aura that was the first thing he noticed after being awakened. It smelled like it would be more delicious than his first victim's aura, and his power had been delectable.

"I see you almost got caught in the sun," Xenith said as he came into the garden.

"You've ruined me," he growled.

"I've made you more powerful than before. You'll realize this in time. Now, this is your part of Shadow Palace. You can't do anything about it, but the three servants I have given you," he indicated the elves who had followed him all night, "They can adjust things to your tastes. But if you want a major change, you'll have to ask me."

"I will not stay."

"This is the safest place. I'm protecting you."

Omega wished he had his blade back, so he could silence this idiot. Instead, he went to tackle him. "I won't..."

Xenith turned quickly and held his hand up. "Not now!"

His whole body went rigid and his soul felt weakened by the sun again. He felt a strong sense of shame for going against the Shadow Master. But why? It made no sense.

"I see you'll need some discipline."

Omega glared at him. "You may have my obedience somehow, but you'll never have my respect."

For a moment, Xenith looked really stung by that remark. That only made his anger worse. "You'll appreciate my greater power soon. For now, get to bed. The sun seems to have made you stupid." He vanished.

" _You shouldn't make Master Xenith mad,"_ one of the elves said, fearful and concerned. " _He works to protect and empower us all."_

"I'm going to sleep," Omega said, trying to disguise the fact that Xenith had given him a direct order and he had to follow it.

* * *

July 17, XX59  
Fort Cerise

X and Zero were in the guest room with the door shut. But they could still hear Rock in the other room, arguing over the phone. Zero tried to listen in, but couldn't make out the details. He walked over to X, who was on an IC looking up news. "What'd you find?"

"What I didn't want to," X replied, slumping back in the chair. "The Fire Dragon was taken from the museum last night. All of the night guards are in the hospital."

"Can't you track him down?"

He shook his head. "That would take a seer that is strongest in finding things. I'm strongest in visions, so unless I get a lucky vision of where he is, I have no idea."

"We've got to find the phoenixes somehow and warn them."

"I think they might sense the shift. I hope so. There might be a clue as to where the Dragon might be and who took him. One of the guards was taken to the psychiatric hospital. She might be able to describe the incident. Or if the other four recover..."

Zero shook X's arm. "X... your flaming sword."

"It might be the Dragon or his sword, or it could be symbolic. I don't think it will happen any time soon."

"But..."

"What?"

Zero bit his lip. "Your dad... he's arguing with my mom."

X looked over at him. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I heard him. They know about the Dragon. Mom wants us both home, but your dad wants to keep us here."

They were quiet for a while. Zero took X's hand. X said, "Well, we could..."

Rock came into the room. "Boys? Listen, I'm sorry about this, but your parents want you back home now, Zero. X is staying with me."

It was a painful goodbye, especially since they couldn't do a thing about it. Especially since Rock and Roll never acknowledged each other while X and Zero were trying to find a way to say goodbye. Especially since there was no way a civilian communications line could reach Fort Cerise, except paper letters.

Back in the guest room, X wished he didn't have his third eye. It couldn't even warn him properly that this was going to happen. It had to make everything a riddle where he didn't know the answer's deadline. And when a truly dangerous thing occurred, it only darkened and then went completely out. Now it was seeing again, but everything was so hazy.

And what was he going to do now that Zero was gone? He was still restricted in where he could be here, restricted in what he could do, and restricted in what he could hear. He was with his dad; he could think of times when he thought he would give up anything in order to be with Rock all the time. But to give up his friendship with Zero, that was too much.

He walked into his father's apartment. He wasn't sure what to do. There was always arguing, but that was pointless at this time. And it would only make things worse. He knew that was truth when he found Rock sobbing in the bathroom.

Feeling timid and uncertain, X stepped in silently. He stood for a few moments before sitting next to him. "Dad?"

"He's stolen my sister and my home now," Rock said. "I can't believe it. I've sacrificed so much for the safety of everyone and this is what I get?"

X sat by him, thinking that the Fire Dragon had only been awake a few hours, but had already ruined things.

* * *

Light residence, Monsteropolis

For the first time in a really long while, Zero felt afraid. He got in trouble for actually fighting with Equinox, who had greeted him by asking where X was. He felt mad at this cousin, who he was supposed to pretend was his brother. It seemed stupid now; everyone knew Equinox wasn't Zero's brother, but it had to be that way. X was supposed to be with Zero, always, but now they couldn't be together.

And the Fire Dragon was back. Not in his body, but Zero still felt fearful of flames surrounding his body again. He felt afraid of hearing that voice in his head. Any unexplained noise made him more nervous. He doubted that even Fort Cerise could protect him, but at least that's where X was.

His parents tried to reassure him, but they made him angry too. When he thought of the Fire Dragon, he wanted to know where they were and wanted to know that they were looking out for him. When he thought of X, he wanted to run away from them, or at least yell at them. He did yell at his mother once, but then burst into tears, hugged her, and begged her to forgive him. But then Solstice started crying because she was hungry. Zero got mad at his sister and his mother, and ran off to find his father.

Overall, this day was horrible.

Late at night, he couldn't sleep. He walked around the large house, winding up in X's room. Many of his things were still here; the room at Cerise was small and the Patrol limited what anyone could have there. Zero sat in the chair that X used to read in all the time. If he couldn't be found, this was the first place to look. But not now.

I wish X was here, Zero thought. I wish, I wish, I wish. But aimless wishes were fruitless.

"Zero?"

He sat up. It sounded like X's voice. Only, he wasn't quite hearing it. "X?" he spoke softly, afraid that he was just imagining things.

"It's me." Zero felt a sense of relief, both from himself, and somehow from X. "I'm glad this worked."

"What are you... we doing?"

"My dad's been very upset about arguing with your mom. But I managed to get him to teach me how to forge telepathic links. And it was very easy, I suppose because the way we've been connected before."

"So now we can talk to each other whenever, wherever?"

"Yes," but this was faint. Zero felt like X's spirit was losing contact. He wasn't as good with aura manipulation, so he just wished hard again to hear him. "Once we get used to this, I mean. This is really draining me."

"It should get better with practice. Go to sleep. I can sleep now."

"Okay." Zero felt like X was laughing with relief. "We will prove stronger than any Dragon's power..."

* * *

July 18, XX59  
Shadow Palace

The main thing Omega wanted to change about his new home was the color. No black and white only; real vivid colors were preferred. The elves were quite happy to do so, although sometimes their coloring enthusiasm had to be curbed. Like when one wanted to paint the grand ballroom neon pink.

"What are your names anyhow?" he asked the three.

" _We dunno_ ," the pink obsessed one said.

" _We don't have names_ ," said the second.

" _You can name us_ ," the third said with enthusiasm.

" _Yeah, give us good names!"_

"All right." He thought about it. At least he got to name them, as opposed to letting Xenith do so. "What sort of names do you want?"

" _Nice shadowy ones_ ," the second said. The other two giggled.

"Then you are Lilith."

The one who loved pink giggled. " _Kay."_

He looked at the other giggler, who was also somewhat girly. "And you're Astra."

" _Oo, pretty."_

And the last, who had proven himself quite masculine when he insisted on painting all the gargoyles and paintings so they'd be ominous looking. "And you would be Memnock."

" _I like that one."_

"Astra, you paint the ballroom. Lilith can take care of the garden."

" _And I get the gargoyles!"_ Memnock claimed.

"Right, you get gargoyles and the outer walls. Go on."

The three elves flew off to their jobs. Omega was getting tired of listening to them anyways. They kept telling him to not fight with Master Xenith. They said he was the greatest shadow of them all, so he had to be respected. More like the shadows were forced to respect the master, no matter how undeserving he was. These three were enthusiastic about serving Omega as a master, but when it came down to it, who would they chose? Probably Xenith.

He left the ballroom for the music room. There was a mute shadow in there who played all the instruments. It was playing a grand piano now. Omega sat on a couch that had been painted velvet red. It was luxuriously soft and warm, and it wasn't long before he decided on lying on the couch instead of sitting.

For a little while, he thought of Zero Light. Being in his body had not been pleasant. He had been restricted in his senses there, only feeling cold and dark. He would wrap himself in fire from time to time to stay warm, but that always made the child so nervous. Not wanting to draw more attention than necessary, he had to leave the child in peace most often.

After being evicted by the strange white fire, Omega had gone into limbo. That had been a nasty place. It was even colder, and darker. And there were unpleasant things in limbo. He wasn't sure what, but it was awful to run into. All oily and prickly, and disgusting. To be in his own body now, able to feel the sensual pleasures of life... this was paradise to what he'd been through.

Still, he couldn't see himself giving into Xenith's power just for this luxury. The Shadow Master had just entered his domain; Omega could feel it. Perhaps he could overthrow him. Then he could make this place exactly into what he wanted. Encouraged by this thought, Omega got up and began to hunt Xenith.

It was a simple task. He tracked the Master's aura to the garden outside, a black and white area that Lilith had yet to reach. He was alone, sitting on a bench reading a large book. Omega crept up behind him, not making a sound. When he felt he was in range of Xenith's hearing, he dashed forward to strike with a paralysis spell. The entire attack took less than a second.

But Xenith vanished from the bench. He reappeared ten yards from Omega, facing him. "So you want proof of my authority."

"You have none." Lacking his normal blade, he summoned one of pure fire. He dashed forward and should have impaled Xenith.

Instead, Xenith got around him, summoned a similar blade of shadow, and struck Omega in the back. Scowling, Omega faced him and clashed blades. He used all the skills Master Wily had given him as instinct. The parasitic soul helped too, letting him see vital nerve connections in Xenith's body and how his blood flowed. It should have been a cakewalk.

Instead, Xenith blocked everything Omega threw at him. His movements seemed unnaturally fluid, as if he had sped up, or slowed Omega down. And he had no problem hitting the vampire. Omega's wounds did heal up almost the instant they were made, but doing so used up aura. Since he could not produce aura himself, he grew a hunger for blood.

Xenith did not once bleed.

Finally, Omega decided the end the fight with a Flame Breath attack. He blasted it right at Xenith; this flame was so hot that it was invisible. The spell incinerated the rose bushes behind the Shadow Master, as well as a marble bench and the garden path tiles. But Xenith himself was unharmed. He retaliated with Shadow Strike: a black razor thin (and sharp) energy field passed right through Omega's body, causing him serious damage.

He felt as starved as he did when he woke up. He could taste Xenith's soul just by the scent. This sent his mind spiraling into pure instinct where the vampire's soul took over. Omega struck again, this time with a nameless spell made up of two potent spells from both of his half-souls. There was a blinding light, but no noise. Then there was silence and dust. Very fine dust, choking the air. Everything was gone.

Except Xenith's scent. The dust cleared from around the two. Xenith was still untouched.

" _Eek_!" an elf cried out nearby. " _What happened to my lovely garden?"_

Xenith snapped his fingers. The garden and the mansion appeared exactly as it had before Omega's last spell. Then he cast Shadow Cure on the vampire. Most curative spells harmed the undead and the shadows. This one harmed most beings and healed undead and shadows. It even restored most of Omega's stored aura; he still felt hunger, but not enough to drive him berserk.

Xenith smiled smugly.

Omega got up. "What was that for? If you could satisfy my aura hunger like that, why did you make me hunt last night?"

"I'm not going to baby you," Xenith said coldly. "Why would I keep a Predator around if I'm going to feed him myself? Honestly, did you want to be a pet?"

"No." And he rather liked hunting. "I suppose you are stronger."

"Then you will give your loyalty to me and me alone?"

Until I find a way to defeat you. "Yes. I accept you as my master, Xenith."

"Good." Xenith smiled broadly, pleased by this. "I'll let you be for now, so that when I need your powers, you'll know them. But any time you need me, send one of your elves to fetch me. I can help you with anything. But I do advise that you be careful when seeking out Zero Light. He is being trained to defeat us, so we cannot take him lightly. Him or his cousin, X."

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

August 26, XX59  
Monsteropolis Museum of Magic and Technology

The break room where the night guards were gathering before shift start was uneasy. Three who had been through the attack forty nights ago, Valiant, Shabrengo, and Luxor, were back on duty. They had needed transfusions and two weeks bed rest, but were fine now. Turquoise had gone back to day shift. And Clarence was dead.

Nobody was sure why, but the reploids harmed that night were able to recover. The one human had grown violently ill. Clarence had been in the hospital ever since the attack; he had died only hours ago. Rumor had it that his internal organs had turned to mush.

There was already a makeshift memorial on the corkboard, which had pictures of Clarence and his family. Talk had gone around about putting together a fund to help his wife and kids through this. Understandably, the three who had been attacked with him were taking this hard.

"Mia, would you mind being in the central station tonight?" Valiant asked. "I'm not up to it right now."

"No problem, Val. You sure you don't want to go home, Brennie? You look kinda sick yourself."

He shook his head. "It's nothing I can't deal with. I'll be fine."

"Who wouldn't feel sick upon hearing how he died?" Luxor said. "I hope that the Patrol or the Guard manages to find that monster."

"That'll be a challenge," Brennie replied. "All the tapes got blacked out and Turquoise still breaks into nervous habits on being asked what she saw."

"And all I remember is being attacked by some wild creature," Valiant said.

Brennie remembered the wild blue eyes and shuddered. But anything else was a complete haze.

* * *

"So you have no idea where this knife is?" Shabrengo looked sternly at the ghost he was speaking to.

Red-handed Andy replied, "Nope. Not a clue." He had been a thief in life and had died trying to steal a volatile crystal from the museum. It exploded and gave him an agonizing death. He still took stuff, but usually put his prizes somewhere else in the building.

"Any idea who else might have..." Brennie stopped as the hall seemed to spin. His stomach felt sick and his head hurt something awful.

Andy floated closer to him. "Shabrengo? Your soul feels corrupted."

"My soul... is corrupted?"

"You sit here. I'll go get one of the living." Andy flew off through a wall.

He sat on the floor and curled his tail around himself for comfort. If a thieving poltergeist like Andy was seriously concerned, something was dead wrong. But what? Did it have to do with how Clarence died?

Not that it mattered. It was better to be dead than alive.

The thought struck Shabrengo, seemingly from nowhere. Yet it was true. The dead never had to worry about petty things the living had to deal with every day. They could do whatever they wanted, provided they managed to stay in the first place. And they invariably proved wiser than the living, perhaps because they knew what mistakes in life could ruin one. It made him realize that he preferred the company of the dead because they were better than the living. Valiant proved that, really, because she still wouldn't accept Brennie as a boyfriend when he'd given her every reason to love him.

The living should be ruled by the dead. This afternoon, he would have dismissed the thought as crazy. Now it made perfect sense. And he knew exactly the person who would best lead the dead: the reploid with the wild blue eyes. His name was Omega, and he was the one.

Shabrengo stood up again. He felt weak with a strange hunger, but the other pains had passed. As he did, Andy passed back through the walls again, and Valiant came through a door. "Brennie, Andy says you've been corrupted. What's he talking about?"

The ghost went, not to Brennie, but to Val. "Back off... that's not Brennie."

"I'm warning you," he told Andy. "If you don't give into your masters and betters, you will suffer worse than in what that crystal did to you."

Valiant looked suspiciously at her coworker. "What's going on? Why are you..."

She never got to finish, because he attacked her. He didn't leave her almost dead; he left her dead. By then, Andy must have warned Mia, because the security alarms were blaring. Following knowledge he'd not really learned, he went to the nearest bathroom, found a mirror, and recited, "Reflector of the world's sorrows and woes, Reflect me to the Palace of Shadows."

In Shadow Palace, the rose garden was now filled with bright and pretty colors. Shabrengo watched the mirror for a moment, as the museum faded from view. With his old life completely gone, he searched out Omega. He knew his master's aura. It was engraved upon his memory. So he wasted no time in walking across the garden.

Omega appeared on the path, poised with a runic blade ready to strike. The blade was black with ghostly orange flames slithering up it. And his armor was something amazing. It was like nothing Shabrengo had ever seen, even working in a museum. It was encrusted with gems. Primarily rubies and diamonds, but highlights of yellow, black, and white were around. And his hair was different than he remembered. It was glossier, rather like spun gold.

Shabrengo felt it appropriate to kneel. At this, Omega shut off his blade and considered him curiously. "You are like me."

"Master Omega, my name is Shabrengo. I am here to serve you."

A shadow elf with Omega buzzed like a hornet.

"I'm not sure what is going on." Omega walked up to Shabrengo and pulled him up. "But you are welcome to my home."

* * *

October 28, XX59  
Fort Hope

Xenophon landed on the ring of the image caster Neko was using. " _What're you doing?"_

"Looking for something to do."

He walked around and noticed the mission set. " _Already? We've only had a two day rest."_

Neko shrugged. "What else is there to do?"

" _We could go visit the Guises. Angel will be four years old soon and we haven't seen them since she was a baby."_

"Except that Star has just about realized his problem. It's better for him that I stay away until he does."

" _What about Kiito?"_

"He's in the middle of training. I hear he's gotten a reputation for being the drill instructor from hell."

Xenophon laughed at that. " _And he's so nice when you meet him otherwise. What about the Lights?"_

"The only ones we really know are our mirrors. It would be a little strange for us to just drop in on them."

" _I guess. What about Alouette?"_

"Busy being a professor at that magic school."

" _Have you stopped being mad at Laguna for marrying Ciel so we can visit them?"_

"I am not mad. I just don't think it was a good match."

" _Fine."_ He knew better than to argue that. " _But we just spent a month chasing down that goblin band, minus our stuff for three weeks of that time. And before that, we were launching satellites in the most forsaken places. Or clearing rails in even worse conditions. I was hoping for at least a week's rest."_

"It needed to be done."

Xenophon lay down on the caster ring. " _I'd ask why you don't want to just be still and quiet for a time, but I know you better. I think you've been avoiding thinking too deeply."_

The corner of Neko's mouth smiled, but it was shortly lost. "I'm not the thinker. You are."

At that moment, the IC squeaked, indicating an incoming voice transmission.

" _I thought nobody knew we were here."_

"Someone does. Either that, or it's a wrong number." Neko put the transmission through. "This is Master Blade Neko Bandolier. Who is this?"

"Master Wizard Rock Light. I need to speak with you."

Neko sat straighter at this. He was currently a freelancer in the Field Patrol, not specifically assigned to any unit. That meant he never took orders from anyone. Except, rare case that it was, from Rock or Blues. "Go ahead."

"We have a serious situation in development, coupled with a lack of information. I need an investigation into Shadow Palace as soon as possible and you have the best access and skills for this mission."

He nodded. He had the master keys to the Palace still. "All right. I'll head out shortly."

"Not immediately," Rock warned. "It's too close to Halloween."

"Halloween?"

"Yes. There are two main problems. One: there is evidence that the Master of Shadow Palace is growing stronger. Two: the Fire Dragon has been activated and there is a viable theory that he is undead."

"Therefore, we don't want to encounter him on the Day of the Dead, or its eve."

"Right. Also, do not attempt to engage the Shadow Master in battle inside the Palace itself. Under those conditions, no matter what his power, he will be invincible. History has always shown this to be true."

"I see. So my elf and I need to get within the Palace, observe how things are there, and report back ASAP."

"Correct. If it is feasible, try to obtain a hair from the Fire Dragon so it may be tested. He is using the body of Zero Wily from the Monsteropolis Museum."

Neko almost flinched at the mention of his old name, but only Xenophon noticed. "We will try."

"Report back to me at Fort Cerise when you get back. I wish you the best of luck in this investigation." Then Rock smiled slightly. "And my son wants me to tell you to be very careful on this mission."

They exchanged goodbyes. Neko waited for the official mission notice to be sent to him, then signed it. "It looks like we have a few days more to rest and get ready. It shouldn't be too bad."

Xenophon sat up. " _But X told us to be very careful. Somehow, that worries me."_

"He's just a kid. Probably still paranoid despite the lifting of the curse. We'll be fine."

* * *

November XX59  
Shadow Palace

" _There's one of them."_

Neko kept low, under a line of rose bushes. "That must be the most expensive piece of armor I've ever seen. The gaudiest too."

Xenophon's aura blipped as he laughed silently. " _It's probably not real. It's a common elf trick to turn an ordinary rock into a jewel by illusion."_

"What do you observe?"

" _I can't tell much from here. We'll have to get closer."_

With the elf looking out for shadow denizens, they moved into the mansion within Shadow Palace. It was a marvel of a building; even knowing that these were mere shadows, Neko was impressed with the image of power it created. There was a definite feel that one could only live here if one deserved it.

Inside one of the halls, Neko discovered an alcove hidden behind a tapestry. He went inside and waited patiently. He couldn't be sure how long he waited. Time didn't flow the same in this place.

But his patience paid off. The Fire Dragon did not walk by, but a white fox reploid did. With his limited magic sense, Neko could only tell this reploid was a creature of shadow and fire. There was something odd about him, but Neko couldn't put a finger on what. When the fox was gone, Neko looked at Xenophon. "Well?"

His aura pulsed quicker than usual. _"We have to leave, immediately. That was a vampire."_

"A vampire? But I felt fire, and I thought vampires were killed by fire."

" _That can only mean that the Fire Dragon is also a vampire, thus his followers are protected from fire. Come. They could kill you easily."_

"I trust your judgment." Neko left the alcove and began to search for keyholes.

But it was a frustrating search. The front door had been protected by a lock spell. No inner doors seemed to be secured. If they were, it was like the front door, by enchantment. They finally came across a keyhole in a glass door to a balcony.

Neko put in the gold key and whispered, "Send us to Fort Cerise."

The keyhole did not glow. The door refused to budge.

He pulled out the key and the door opened to the balcony. "What gives?"

" _I think it's because this is a glass door. Let's keep looking."_

The search went on. Neko was about to suggest that they leave the mansion and find the door out of the garden. But then his danger senses put his battle systems on alert...

He heard a clamping sound and turned to see two shadow elves seal Xenophon inside a canning jar. Just beyond the elves, he spotted the fox reploid and the Fire Dragon. Neko went to draw Zetsabre and attack, but the two vampires hit him simultaneously with paralysis spells. Normally, Xenophon canceled those out for him. He couldn't do so in a jar with a lead seal.

The two were kneeling by Neko shortly. "I told you I felt a delicious aura here, Master Omega."

The lustful and hungry look on Omega's face made Neko feel sharply uncomfortable. "Very good. His aura is ancient and powerful. It could cling to life for a long time."

"Could I take him?"

"No. I've read something that I want to try, and he seems like a perfect candidate."

One of the shadow elves buzzed, followed by a screechy laughter from the second.

"Play with him all you want," Omega said. Then he thought of something and looked suspiciously at them. "Where's Astra?"

The elf said something that made him nervous.

"What is it?" the fox asked.

Omega clenched Neko's hand with surprising strength, enough to actually hurt him. While the fox put another paralysis spell over him, the master said, "You're not taking him."

Puzzled, Neko looked where Omega was looking. A door that had previously been blank now had a doorknob and a keyhole. It opened, allowing the Shadow Master and two elves in. Xenith looked over Neko and Xenophon, then said, "Play with them all you want. But give me the keys in his pocket."

"The keys?"

Xenith scowled. It looked ridiculous to Neko, like a toddler throwing a tantrum. "Give them to me."

But the tone made both vampires flinch. Omega searched Neko's pockets, eventually pulling out the master keys. He threw them over to Xenith. "There."

He looked over the gold key, the silver key, and the bone key, and smiled. He pulled off the gold and bone key, then pulled out a necklace that had been under his armor. On it were an identical silver key and a black key. He put the other two on, then tossed Omega the single silver key. "That will get you anywhere inside Shadow Palace that you want, provided there's a keyhole entry." Then he turned to one of the shadow elves. "Thank you, Astra. This is a great boon to us all. Every shadow thanks you."

Astra grew brighter and made an awful screeching sound.

Neko felt alarmed. Without the keys, his mind and soul were unprotected from Shadow Palace's magic. And with them, Xenith now had full and free access to the outer world. Neither fact could mean anything good.

* * *

December, XX60

-from the journal of Roll

I used to worry that my situation would force me to choose between my brothers and Forte. I didn't want to hurt anyone so I kept quiet. But maybe that caused things to turn so bad. I don't know. Would it have come out worse if I had told my family the truth long ago? I might have been disowned back then.

For a little while, it seemed everything was going to work out after all. No matter how he might downplay it, X was brilliant in solving the curse of winter. And the friendship between him and my son Zero seemed to have made things okay. Rock and Blues were accepting Forte for some time and didn't harass him much when we got married.

But then last year, something happened and now both of my brothers have rejected me. I've tried to figure out why and I'm not sure. Does it have to do with my son resembling that last reploid of Master Wily? Or is there some threat to X that gives them no reason to come here? I am afraid of that. It always seemed like, when they did come home, it was mostly to visit him.

Rock once told me that I ruined the memory of those that only he and Blues seemed to remember. He was openly angry at the time, as was I, so I didn't ask what he meant. But I keep wondering that. What did he mean by those that only they remembered? And what else did I do wrong that makes them angry with me? Blues told me that, that it wasn't just me being with Forte that was wrong. But when I asked him what was wrong, he just got frustrated and walked off. I think he was feeling hurt too, although it's harder to tell with him. But what else did I do to hurt them?

They're my brothers and I love them, but I'm also somewhat mad at them too still. I don't want to be, but when they won't tell me what's wrong, I can't help it. And they keep X away from us too.

That really still affects Zero, I'm sure. He does a wonderful job of being the oldest child in the house now, being a good example to his sister and brother as well as sticking up for them. And I can tell that he truly appreciates me and Forte, being able to remember a time when he had no adult to care for him. Still, he misses X deeply. I've noticed that he does have nightmares from time to time, but he rarely comes to us for it. Instead, I usually find him sleeping in X's room instead. Apparently the boys can talk telepathically with each other, but there are times when that isn't enough.

And I've noticed that Equinox feels the same way. He's usually the one to ask if X will be coming home any time soon. And sometimes he gets into arguments over Zero with that. It's odd, but mentioning X seems to make things tense for them even though they both want to see him again. Otherwise, he's not much trouble. Just a dirt magnet and on the sloppy side (especially with his room). Solstice doesn't remember seeing X at all, of course, but even she's come to like him in talking with him over the phone.

I just wish they could get attached to their uncles as well.

* * *

December, XX60

-from the journal of Rock

X and I were looking over his class courses from WUST for next semester. Thankfully, all the ones he was interested in were available online. He's got more than enough credit hours to graduate in his chosen degrees this spring, so he was picking optional and more in-depth classes to follow. But we will be going to Monsteropolis for his graduation, then.

I'm not sure how to handle that, though. I want it to be a happy time for him and I know he'll want to visit his cousins. But it's not going to be pleasant to meet with Forte and Roll again. I wouldn't want to argue with them for X's sake, but then to remember the mess that happened fifty years ago when they must have first met and connected, that still hurts. A number of good people, and some close allies of mine, died while we were searching fruitlessly for her. And while one of them must have seduced the other. I'm not sure if I'd be angrier to learn who it was, but the thought we made sacrifices for nothing still makes me feel betrayed, all this time later.

Sometimes I wonder why I can't seem to have a normal relationship with a woman. One died at the hands of my enemy, another was my enemy in disguise, and my own sister was sleeping with the enemy. And then there are times when I can tell one is trying to get attached to me because I'm a famous hero. I really don't like those women.

It's gotten to worry me, though, about how that will affect X. Now that he's been with me constantly for a year and a half, I can see that wants to have some kind of mother figure around even if he says he's okay with just me. The personnel of Fort Cerise changes often and he acts timid around any unknown women. But he does watch them until he spots one he thinks he can trust and then he starts to hang around her. If she brushes him off, he gets upset, but not visibly and not when he's outside our apartment.

If she does tolerate him, X wavers between keeping her as a 'friend' and still watching to see if he can trust her. A couple of them have noticed and confronted me about this. I'm never quite sure how to respond to it. I want to tell them to be kind to him and accept his attention even with how strange he can seem. But these women also work for me, sometimes even under my direct orders, and I can't really make that request of them.

And they generally don't stick around, due to squads being moved around. That makes him sad, although X rarely shows this. In that way, I suppose he is like me. I wish it wasn't that way.

What I really wish is that Zero had some other mother so I could have left X in a better home situation. I might have even accepted Roll and Forte falling in love now. But back then, when things were different, it's not right. I just can't forget my fallen friends.

* * *

December 14, XX60  
Light residence, Monsteropolis

Equinox went in his closet, cautious. He wore an antenna headband. This allowed his com unit to make long distance calls. He also wore a bandage on his right hand. "Are you sure they're not gonna attack me again?"

"It's day time," X replied. "They won't be awake. You're looking for their nest. It will be like a paper wasp's nest and is probably in an upper corner." He had been given some access to the communication lines, but was restricted to certain times and numbers.

Leaning in and looking up, he spotted a mass on the underside of the upper shelf. "I see it. It's grayish blue and has three holes. Pencil sized holes."

"Then that's the Night Puff nest. Are you ready?"

"I guess so."

"Okay, first you need to spray the nest with the perfume. It'll make certain that they won't wake up.

"Right." He took the bottle he'd gotten from his mom and sprayed the nest a few times. His closet smelled instantly like lilacs. It made him sneeze.

"I think you overdid it," X said.

Equinox put his hand over his nose. "Man, now my closet will smell like flowers for days."

"If Zero makes fun of you, just tell me."

"Okay. Now what?"

"Put the peanut butter over the holes." X waited. "Now carefully pull the nest off the wall. Use the knife if you need to."

With some encouragement from X over the com line, Equinox got the nest off the wall and into an insect cage. He locked it in. "There."

"Good. Give it to your dad; he should be able to take care of them."

"Thanks a lot. Can I trade my brother and sister for you?"

X laughed. "I'm your cousin. That's good enough."

"No it's not. I don't ever get to see you. Are you coming home for Christmas?

"Afraid not. I'd love to, but you know. My dad won't come."

Equinox went over to the door and peered into the hall. There seemed to be no one around, but he shut his door anyhow. "But you'll be ten in a couple of months. Will you come home next year, when you're an adult?

"Maybe. I'll see how things work out."

"Can I come visit you?"

"You know the answer to that. The only civilian that can come visit me is my teacher, Lulani."

"That stinks."

"I know. It isn't fair, but that's how things are."

"I guess." He paused, then added, "X, can I tell you something secret?"

'Sure. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."

"Good. Well, you know my slingshot?" He glanced over at where it was, on his dresser.

"The one your dad gave to you for your last birthday? Is Roll still making a fuss about how you shouldn't have it?"

Equinox went over and picked the weapon up. It was white with red-violet bands. "We finally convinced her to let me keep it because Zero has Dusty Blade and I promised not to hurt anybody with it."

"That's good."

"Yeah, but now that I have it all the time, strange things have been happening."

"Strange?"

"It's not really obvious stuff, not stuff other people will notice. But I notice. It makes me feel like I'm living with strangers."

"Your slingshot makes you feel that?"

"I only ever feel that way when I'm holding it. Not all the time, just sometimes. I even feel like I don't recognize my parents."

"Huh. That is strange."

"Oh, but there's one person that doesn't seem like a stranger and feels more real than everyone else."

"Who's that?"

"The man from my dreams."

"Ah, him." X knew about him. Equinox had told only a few people about the man who lived only in his dreams. His parents thought the man was just a reoccurring dream image. But X treated him like a real person, which was how Equinox thought of him.

The man looked sort of like Forte, but not quite. His hair was lighter, lavender like Equinox's hair. He was a warrior who liked bombs and spellbows. Which was peculiar because Equinox didn't know anybody who used a spellbow often.

"Equinox?"

"Oh, sorry X." He turned the slingshot around. "I just spaced out for a moment."

"That's okay."

"I even heard him. It was just a few days ago, when I was shooting at plastic bottles."

"Really? What did he say?"

"He said that I had to be the best I could be. That was it, but it won't leave me. At first I thought it was my dad, but dad wasn't anywhere around, and it didn't even sound like him."

"Hmm."

"What is it about my slingshot that's making me experience these weird things?"

"When you say you feel like a stranger... do you feel unloved at all?"

"No, nothing like that. It's like being in the mall where you don't know who everyone is, but you're fairly sure no one means you harm."

"Okay. If it's just that, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just ignore the feeling and it should go away on its own. However, I do think the man from your dreams is linked to your slingshot."

"That's great. But how is that? I've always dreamed of him, but I only just got this."

"I think the man is a real spirit that's watching over you. A spellbow and a mystic slingshot are similar weapons." X paused. "I'm not sure why, but he seems to be protecting you. I'll consult the Tarot this evening and talk to you tomorrow."

"I know he's a good person. Can you find out who he is?"

"I'll try. Probably the most important thing is that if he's talking to you, you should listen. If he wishes to advise you, then it's probably wisest to follow his words."

"Oh I will, if he wants to tell me anything. Do you think he's trying to talk to me?"

"It could be."

"Can you teach me how to talk to him?"

"I don't know how to talk to a spirit like that myself. I'll ask Lulani. I won't say it's for you, but I'll find out."

"That would be great. I really do wish you were my brother instead."

"Zero's a good brother."

"But he beats me at wrestling every time. I don't get it. I'm bigger than he is, but he manages to defeat me." Then he laughed. "You wouldn't even fight me, would you?"

"Are you so sure about that?" X asked slyly. Then they both laughed.


	37. The Failed Mission

December 25, XX60  
Light residence

Zero darted around the first floor, seeking Equinox. His brother was in the bathroom, washing up his hands. He leaned in. "Psst."

He looked over, then glanced in the mirror to see if anyone else was about. "Hmm?"

"Remember X's plan," Zero whispered. "We've got to get mom and Uncle Rock to make up. They've been fighting way too long."

Equinox nodded. "Right."

"Boys, come in for dinner," Roll called.

It was a magnificent holiday dinner, as always. They ate in the great room; guests, either in the inn or just for the night, were at other tables. Roll, Forte, and their three kids all were at a table at the far end of the room. Joining them were Iris, Daisy, and Dahlia, as Oregon, Ash, and Sandy were all out on patrol far away. Blues couldn't be there. Actually, he could, but he'd never come back home when Roll and Rock started fighting. These people that should be there weren't because of something the kids didn't know about.

There was talk, of course, between the ham and the turkey, the mashed potatoes (which Solstice made a monster out of) and the yams, the fresh bread and the mixed vegetables, the fruit salad and the jello salad. Zero and Equinox kept waiting, patiently listening. This had to seem unplanned.

Finally, there was a good moment when one topic expired and no one immediately suggested another. Everyone seemed in a good mood, good enough for this. The two brothers whispered between each other, then Zero asked, "Hey dad, how'd you meet mom?"

Forte grinned mischievously. "I kidnapped her. And then forty-some years later, I kidnapped you." He tapped Zero on the nose, making him smile.

"You really kidnapped mom?" Equinox asked, now more interested than ever.

"Oh yeah," Roll said. "With a great big loud rifle."

"But then how did you get married out of that?" Equinox asked.

"Will you tell us?" Zero asked.

"I don't know if we should," Roll said.

"Aw, please," Equinox and Zero said simultaneously.

"Please?" Solstice added a bit late. She wasn't in on the plan, but she was helping.

"Well, it's not really a story for kids," she started.

"Why not?" Equinox asked.

Zero, being old enough to know why, snorted with laughter.

"I wanna hear the story," Solstice said.

"Yeah, it must be so romantic," Iris said. Then she giggled at herself for saying that out loud.

"I don't know about that," Roll said.

"Are you so sure?" Forte said in a teasing tone that made her laugh.

"Oh come on dear," Daisy said. "Go ahead and tell your story. Just skip the parts not for young ears."

"I always wondered about you two," Dahlia added.

"All right, I guess so," Roll said. "But he started it."

* * *

March XX09  
Laura Reader Public Rose Garden

Roll had decided to take a walk this afternoon. Her dad was busy with research and no amount of teasing would get him outside. All well. Sometimes it was good to walk alone. But she may not have felt that secure if she knew who was watching her.

From the cover of dense ivy, Forte watched his target. This mission wasn't official. He had no orders concerning the female Light, but he had plans. And it all stemmed from a previous failure.

It hadn't been his fault, he thought to himself. He had executed Master Wily's plan perfectly. However, the plan only accounted for Rock and Blues showing up. When Forte watched his rivals come up with three warrior friends, he knew he was in trouble. The plan would have destroyed the brothers otherwise.

His father had berated him the whole time he was under repair. He said Forte's emotional side had gotten the better of him, in particular fear. He threatened to remove the reploid programming and return him to what he'd been. But it had nothing to do with fear. It was those three other idiots who messed everything up. When released from repair and orders, Forte decided he would prove it by destroying the Light brothers with his own plan.

He had everything prepared but one. He just needed their sister.

He waited until she was close. A human woman came up; they exchanged a few polite words, then moved on. Good, this was perfect. He aimed his rifle. It was more than the job required, but some extra intimidation for the witness was just fine. Earlier, he had loaded it with special bullets that were enchanted to tranquilize rather than kill. He fired.

Roll heard the shot, but it was too late. She fell to the ground. The witness started to come over, but Forte got there first. As he planned for, she didn't dare come closer to someone carrying a fierce looking rifle and wearing heavy battle armor. Forte kneeled by Roll and made a show of checking her life signs.

"It's time you met your destiny in darkness," he said aloud. "Come to Balna Forest and become one with the shadows."

Then he teleported with her to his cabin in Balna. The witness would report what she saw and heard. Rock and Blues would come immediately, that was certain. All Forte had to do now was wait.

* * *

Balna Forest

Roll woke up and smelled a fireplace. She opened her eyes and saw a log wall and a log ceiling. Where was she? On a cot, possibly in the woods from the rustling of leaves outside. And why did it feel like something metal was on the back of her neck?

She sat up and rubbed her head. There was a metal plate on the back of her neck. It felt about an eighth of an inch thick and smooth, possibly steel. She wasn't sure how it was on there or how it would come off.

"You can't take that off on your own," a male voice told her

Startled, she turned and looked around the one room cabin. Forte was standing at the doorway. She only knew him through pictures, although his armor was unique enough that she knew it was him. The cabin itself was not threatening. But his presence was. "W-what are you doing with me?"

"Keeping you here. That crystal," he pointed to a translucent black one hanging from the ceiling, "is connected to that plate. If you go out of the crystal's range, the plate will kill you."

"My brothers will be here to rescue me."

"I'm counting on that." He left the cabin.

Roll felt afraid. But no, her brothers would rescue her. Forte had no idea how fiercely they would fight when she was in danger. She just had to wait, and everything would be okay.

* * *

Roll had been in Balna a week. Forte patrolled around the cabin. They would show up shortly. He had friends in wolves, wolfoids, Core Demons, a few sylphs, and nymphs. The moment Rock and Blues came into the forest, Forte would know. But they weren't here yet. Since it was getting to be evening, he went back to the cabin.

Something was off. The cabin actually smelled good, like fresh baked bread and soup. Entering, he found Roll near the cast iron stove. "What are you doing?"

"Cooking supper," she replied. "I got a little bored and made some bread. Then I figured, since you eat here every night, might as well make supper. I just took various leftovers, so I'm not entirely sure what's in here..."

"You got bored, so you baked."

"Yeah. Is there a problem?"

Forte didn't answer that. Instead, he went over to his supply cabinet and searched for a particular vial. Once he found it, he brought it out and passed it over the bread.

"What are you doing?" Roll asked, curious.

"Making sure you didn't poison it."

"Why would I do that? I'm eating it too."

He didn't answer that either. But supper was very good that night, better than anything he could make. And she said it was just leftover bits.

* * *

Two weeks now. Forte was angry. The Light brothers should be here now. It wasn't that hard to track him down. Unless they got caught in a gate to Shadow Palace... that would actually be great. But the wildlife of Balna reported no strangers to Forte. What was going on? Weren't they the loyal family, instantly there when one was in trouble? That's how the media portrayed them.

In the evening, he returned to the cabin. He was frustrated and ready to fight somebody, anybody. But the only thing different here was that everything smelled like pine. "What are you up to now?" he growled.

Roll put an old clock back on the fireplace mantle. "Supper is just pasta tonight, so I decided to clean up a bit."

"A bit?" Glancing around the cabin, Forte could see not a speck of dust or dirt, except that which he'd just tracked in. Every surface glimmered with cleanliness. It seemed as if she had cleaned all the furniture. And the floor. And the walls. And probably the ceiling too. It didn't seem quite as sooty.

"You don't have much for cleaning supplies, so I had to enchant my own from the pine tree outside the cabin. But things are so much nicer, don't you agree?"

Forte wanted to find something to complain about, but everything was in order. Except for Roll. Why was she being so calm? He was used to victims being whiny and sullen, if he hadn't been ordered to torture them or something else. He wasn't used to one voluntarily cooking and cleaning, just out of boredom. What was she up to?

He went to his supply cabinet, to get that poison alert potion and check everything. There, he found a reason to be mad. "You organized my magic supplies?"

She nodded. "Yes, they were all just cluttered about in there. I put some empty..."

"You were never to mess with my magic supplies!"

"Oh. Well..." she lost her words.

Forte clenched his fist. He wasn't afraid to hurt her. She was his captive and she had to do what he wanted. That's how it always was. But she just stood there, calm and quiet. Not angry, not intimidated, not cocky. Just a calm in between. If only she would look a bit emotional…

After several minutes of silence, he said, "Don't mess with my supplies."

"Okay. Dinner should be just about done. Excuse me." She went to the stove.

Forte took his dinner outside to eat.

* * *

Once he was gone, Roll openly shuddered. He had been close to hitting her and she had been afraid. But she stood her ground calmly and he had let her go with just a verbal warning.

Kindness could be the most annoying thing in the world. At least, so she'd heard. And so far, it was working. Roll had been nothing but kind and helpful to her captor and it was unnerving him. Perhaps she would kindly annoy him so much that he would let her go. It was a stretch, but her options were limited.

At any rate, she had figured out that Forte wanted her brothers to come, but didn't want to anger them too much. With Blues, it didn't matter, but she could see why he would want to keep Rock as calm as possible in a fight. Enraging a warrior who exclusively used magic was idiotic. Even a non-fighter like Roll knew that an angry wizard was more powerful in battle. In that way, she was relatively safe until her brothers came.

But where were they?

* * *

April XX09  
Balna Forest

The messenger robot clicked. "This message is to Master Wily in Fortress Eagle that Roll Light is being transported there, not to Balner Falda."

"No," Forte said sternly. "Send the message, addressed to Master Wily, to Rock or Blues Light, that Roll Light is being transported to Balna Forest. You are to take it to Balner Falda, despite it being labeled for Fortress Eagle."

"These orders do not make sense. Report to Master Wily?"

"No, this falls under Security Override 3b."

"Authority number?"

Forte sighed and recited his password again. This complicated ruse was needed, since his human witness had messed up badly. How could one mistake hearing Balna Forest for Balner Falda? Balner was a notorious city in Africa. The Wily clan had connections and establishments in that city. But a prisoner of importance, like Roll Light, would usually not be taken there.

Yet the Light brothers were in Balner Falda, searching for her. After a month, Forte had discovered this mistake on their part. He had to correct it, and quickly. But he didn't want to correct it directly. They might not fall for his traps if he did. This was the best solution.

That is, once the orders stopped confusing the messenger robot. The messenger had to go to Balner Falda, be captured by the Light brothers, and give its message after a good struggle. An intercepted message would make them think they were unexpected.

After a good hour of discussion, the messenger robot finally got the point. Forte sent it off and hoped that Rock and Blues would get here soon. Roll was annoying the hell out of him.

* * *

Roll wasn't sure how far the black crystal's reach was, but she figured out that she could go outside for a little ways. She went into the greenhouse often for fresh vegetables. Oddly enough, Forte seemed rather good with plants. The ones here were all healthy and producing well. Sometimes she went outside just to be out in the sunny forest. It was a lovely place, and she wished she could go out and explore.

It was one of those days when she went out just to relax. Relax as much as she could, anyhow, with the thought of being captive and her brothers being in danger because of it. She wished she could do something, like escape, but Forte said that would kill her. She only had his word on that, but it was the sort of thing she didn't want to test.

And that's when someone came to the rescue.

She observed him first, walking through the woods. He was a reploid, no doubt. An interesting fellow, he was tall and broad, wearing dark green pants and a vest that appeared to be made of playing cards. He had spiked black hair and wore dice earrings. For weapons, he carried a crossbow and a machete.

On one hand, she didn't know him. On the other hand, she hadn't seen another person ever since being captured. "Hello," she called out.

He came over, curious. "Good afternoon," he replied. "Strange. I don't find a lady in this forest often."

"I've been stolen away," she explained. "I've been a captive of this cabin for nearly two months now. Would you please help me?"

He smiled warmly. "Why, certainly. But we must be careful. The nearest city is a week away on foot, and there are many dangers. I'm here on training. My name is Trump."

"Mine is Roll Light."

His eyes brightened with recognition. "Ah, so you are a true lady. It is an honor to meet you, Lady Light." He took her hand and kissed it.

Roll laughed. "You don't have to be that way. Oh, but we need to get this plate off my head before it kills me."

"No problem; I'll take a look at it." Trump looked it over and had it off in a minute. "We'll go to my forest house for now. Then we'll see about getting you home quickly."

* * *

Forte had taken a risk and had gone to Kykital for supplies. While in the city, he picked up a sewing kit for Roll, to keep her occupied with something else. He was beginning to suspect that the messenger robot had failed. Hopefully, the Light brothers had damaged it beyond repair, rather than Master Wily intercepting it. So he had to relocate the Lights and get them here, soon.

When he got back, the cabin was empty.

Had they finally come? Had he missed his long overdue fight? Forte was so frustrated that he nearly threw the sewing kit on the floor (but there were sharp little pins in it). Figures that his plan would get ruined one way or another

But maybe they were still around. He couldn't imagine Rock and Blues giving up a chance for revenge on their sister's behalf. With that in mind, he put the supplies on the table and searched for evidence.

He found that Roll had gone outside. The kill plate was on the ground near a place she'd been sitting. There was a second set of footprints there. However, they weren't the right size or shape for either of her brothers. Someone else had avoided all his traps and had rescued her. Forte made a mental note to check the traps and add more.

Did they teleport to Kykital? That was most logical. But no. He found their tracks leading away from the cabin. And not in the direction of the nearest city. From the signs the plants were showing, and the way Roll's steps fell, they had moved off quickly. Her rescuer seemed used to the terrain, but not as highly trained as Forte.

Something didn't seem right.

But more important, this unexpected rescuer had stolen his captive. If he didn't have Roll, he couldn't fight her brothers. And if he didn't fight her brothers and win without doubt, his standing with Master Wily would definitely drop. He had to have Roll. Forte raced after them.

* * *

Forte tracked Roll and her rescuer to a house by a lake. The house was new, large, and lavish. Nothing like his simple cabin. He didn't know who built it there, or when, but he could tell that person was probably rich. The lake was as he knew it; a faint shadow and odd ripples betrayed the hydra that lived there. Forte was on good terms with this beast, even if he couldn't speak its language.

He walked around the cabin, critiquing it. There were no special defenses here. Someone meant this to be a vacation home and little else. But why vacation in these woods? Forte didn't mind living here. He liked it, but few people had the training necessary to survive.

" _Greetings, brother Forte,"_ he heard in wolfspeak.

He glanced aside. _"Greetings brother Gospel. Where have you been?_

" _Out and about. What are you doing here? This is far from your home."_

" _Somebody has taken my captive."_

" _Why not just leave her? She annoys you."_

" _I'm doing this in honor of our sire. I will not fail."_

" _You'd do better to contact him. I do not like these secrets."_

" _I know what I'm doing."_

" _As you say,"_ Gospel said before moving on.

Forte rolled his eyes. Any of the other wolves would have offered assistance if possible. I can do a better wolf than Gospel, he thought. But he kept it to himself.

He went back to observing the house. He found a large window which opened to a living room. There were expensive items inside, from the handcrafted furniture to the sophisticated image caster setup. On the couch, he could see Roll. She looked tired, but her posture was intriguing. She sat defensively with her arms crossed over her chest. From her place, she watched someone else closely.

Forte couldn't make out that someone else, most likely her rescuer. He (or she, but it was more likely a he) stood only partly in view of the window and was poorly lit. He was a bulky guy. Despite the bad view, Forte observed enough that he was able to begin calculating a sleep spell to overtake the man. He began creeping up to the window to get in range.

This plan got completely thrown out when Roll screamed. She was cut off forcefully.

Scowling, Forte shifted the spell from sleep to vertigo and cast it quickly. He followed up with a shortcut version of Piercing Blow, which broke the window and made a short stabbing pain in his opponent's back. Then he drew his daggers and jumped into the house.

The supposed rescuer turned angrily, but then looked confused in a way that had nothing to do with the vertigo spell. "Brother?"

Forte glared. "Trump, what are you doing out here?"

Roll, holding her shirt in place, looked frightened at both of them.

"Getting away from all the fuss," Trump answered. "I was... a bit more successful than Master thought, so I built this out here. Nice, huh?"

"I hope you didn't anger the hydra."

"Hydra?"

"Out in the lake. Now, why do you have my prisoner?

"Oh, your prisoner." He smiled slyly. "She asked me to bring her. But she's awful fussy, isn't she?"

"But you," Roll started.

"Shut up," Trump said. "You ain't here to talk."

"I had her for a reason," Forte said. "And I'm taking her back"

"Well then can't you get her to be more respectful? I did her a favor and she won't do anything for me."

"That isn't a smart move. Not unless you want her brothers tearing you apart."

"But she's your prisoner. You can do what you want with her."

"I'm taking her back, on my authority." He went to take her hand. Travel at night would be dangerous, but...

His thoughts were interrupted by Trump blocking him. "In that case, no. I'm keeping her."

"You're going to regret that." Forte started calculating Astro Crush. It would take a minute, but the spell's effects were worth it.

"No I won't," Trump said with a cold laugh. "Your authority... that means nothing! Apparently, Master Wily didn't even bother telling you."

"He informs me of everything of importance." That wasn't entirely true, but it was a myth he'd spread to his brothers, to keep them in line.

"Except that you're not important anymore. He has these four new reploids that he's enamored with. Calls them the Rock Killers, and they are now in charge of affairs. Your status has been downgraded to the old garbage that you are. Therefore, I'm taking over in this matter."

"I am not old garbage," Forte said in a dangerous tone.

"Yes you are, antique. You are incomparably bad when put with us newer models. Why I..."

He never got a chance to brag, because Forte cast Astro Crush. In anger. It normally caused immense pressure to focus on the target, paralyzing and choking them. This time, it crushed him hard enough to crumple his metal frame. The movement of his eyes indicated that Trump had managed to live.

Roll looked away from the scene, trying to not be sickened. "Thank you Forte, I suppose. I didn't expect..."

"Shut up," Forte growled. "We're staying here for the night. If you know what's good for you, don't leave the house. And don't you dare bother me."

He grabbed Trump and dragged him out to a porch that overlooked the lake. When he placed him on the rail, his brother looked thoroughly intimidated. He could let Trump back into the clan to spread the word that Forte was not to be trifled with. But then he might leak word of Roll.

"You should introduce yourself to your neighbors," Forte said. "It's only polite."

Then he threw Trump into the hydra's lake.

* * *

May XX09

Roll rubbed the back of her neck. "Aren't you going to put that plate back on?"

"It's not like you can find your way through this forest," Forte said. "Especially not with the monster and shadow population. Here." He put a shotgun in her hands.

She looked at it as if it would explode on her at any minute. "What's this for?"

"You ought to learn how to defend yourself, in case any of my other brothers show up. Don't trust anyone in these woods."

"Anyone, huh."

He looked at how she was holding it. "No, not like that. Here." He put it in her hands properly.

For the next two weeks, Forte taught Roll how to use and care for the shotgun. She got fairly good at it, although she still treated the weapon with some distaste. At least he didn't have to worry about anyone stealing her again until her brothers showed up.

Her brothers still hadn't searched Balna Forest. How dumb could they be? Forte felt about ready to go chase them down.

* * *

The teleport grid alarm went off.

Forte jumped up, then grabbed his equipment. At last, those idiots were... no. It wasn't them. The aura wasn't right.

The aura was downright wrong.

He did a quick second scan, which confirmed the first scan as true. The person hadn't teleported to the cabin, but it was obvious he knew where it was. The nearest trap nearly caught the intruder, but then it was crumpled and tossed aside. There was only one person that could account for this reading.

Forte was caught in a moment of indecision. This was unexpected; what should he do? He was on an unofficial mission. He weighed his options. But the person was coming close, so he ran back to the cabin.

Roll was outside singing. She had one of Forte's cloaks, repairing a lost button. Noticing him, she smiled. "I'm running a bit low on brown thread. You have so many..."

"Keep quiet," he ordered her. "Come with me."

"What for?"

He brought her inside. "Not a sound out of you." He shuffled some potions in his supply closet until he came up with an appropriate bottle. He gave that to her, then pushed her toward the cellar.

She didn't ask anything verbally, but there were dozens of questions in her eyes.

Forte waited until she was down in the cellar. "Put some of that on your wrists, neck, and ankles. And then not a sound out of you." He shut the cellar door.

Then he went back to his supply closet. He grabbed various ingredients and brought them to the table. Examining what he got, he decided on a flame guard and began mixing it.

The door opened without warning. There was only one man bold enough to do that. He was an older human, with scraggly white hair and magic scars scattered on his skin. Although most wizards wore enchanted robes, he wore a lab coat. But the most unmistakable thing about him was his black eyes. They glowed like only a white wizard's eyes could.

Forte acted reasonably surprised and stood up to salute him. "Master Wily. What brings you out here?"

"Where is Roll Light?" Wily asked, in a voice that spoke of impatience.

"Excuse me?"

"You know who she is. So where is she?"

"I don't know. I've been following your orders, waiting out here on your word. Would you like me to search for her?"

"Blues said you kidnapped her."

"I didn't."

"And to that end, he and Rock have invaded three forts looking for her, including Fortress Eagle."

Forte's exterior remained calm, but on the inside, he cursed the messenger bot. Although it had the message right when he sent it, somehow it messed up the delivery.

"My plans have been set back years because of something you apparently did. Where is Roll?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know."

He nodded. But his father was glaring at him with those mystical eyes. Forte felt a strong inclination to tell him the truth. His body became uncomfortable and achy due to those magic eyes, but his mind remained firm.

When Albert Wily began visually examining the cabin, Forte's nerves began to unravel. He knew it was because of his father's aura. But he also knew it was because a single blond hair would give him away. Roll kept the cabin neat and tidy, but only one hair could undo him. The master looked to the cellar door, which he knew was there. Forte hadn't bothered disguising it because of that. Disguising the door now would invite a search.

After five long minutes, the glow from Albert's eyes lessened. Forte felt immensely relieved, but kept that hidden too. And then his father turned to leave without a word.

"Master Wily?" Forte's resolve almost broke then. He started after Albert, but stopped when that glare began again. "Do you want me to search for Roll, or fight her brothers?"

"You're to stay here until I call you."

Was Trump right? Forte still couldn't believe it. "But father..."

Albert's eyes narrowed, and the glow brightened. It cast strange black light over his face; Forte started to have a headache in response.

"I was your first and you said..." he tried not to sound afraid and upset, but it was unmistakable. "You said I would always be most important."

"You must have heard of my advances. I don't need you right now, and if you continue like this, you may never be called up again." He left.

* * *

Roll came out of the cellar after it had been silent for fifteen minutes upstairs. She wasn't sure if that was the smart thing to do, but the door had slammed shut and Forte hadn't made a sound since.

He was standing not far from the door, staring at it dumbly. She wasn't sure what was going to happen to her now. Then again, she hadn't expected him to lie about where she was hidden.

She approached him carefully. "That wasn't right, that he should just forget about you."

"Shut up," Forte said, but there was no venom to it at all.

She hugged him and a minute later, he was crying.

* * *

Roll wasn't sure what to do for a time. Forte had grown moody. Sometimes he was upset and didn't mind being comforted. Sometimes he was angry and didn't want to be anywhere near her. He came close to being violent. When he felt out of control of his situation, he ordered her about, proving his control of her at least. Other times, he acted strangely and Roll wasn't sure what he was thinking.

But her mind kept drifting back to her brothers, who were surely getting desperate for a real lead on her whereabouts. They would be frustrated at having spent so long searching that they would fight to the death to get her back. And for Forte, defeating them was his best path back to his father's favor. He might not love his father like Roll did hers, but it was obvious that being Wily's favorite meant a lot to him.

At some point, somebody was going to die for her sake. Roll hated the thought of that. Especially when she found herself sympathizing with Forte. He had taken her and he had threatened to kill her and her brothers. But she found that she understood why he was doing this. She even cared for what happened to him.

One morning, she decided that she didn't want anybody to die because of her. She put a sleep enchantment over Forte's lunch; she was able to get away with it because he'd stopped checking everything for poison three weeks ago. Once he was asleep, she put on one of the brown cloaks and a pair of hiking boots refitted to her size. She also took the shotgun, a box of ammo, a water bottle, and a box of matches.

She had no idea where she was in the forest, but she had figured out a way to get to the nearest city. There was a satellite overhead, and while she was still out of range for com use, she was able to use it to check her position compared to the nearest city, Kykital. Trump had said it would take a week on foot. Forte said it was much too dangerous. But Roll would try.

* * *

Forte woke up, realized what Roll had done, and threw the bowl across the room. So she wanted to try escaping on her own? Fine then. She could go out there and die for all he cared. At least she was out of his hands now, so her fate was no longer his responsibility.

Now what? Now he sat here and waited for Master Wily's word on what to do. Now he sat here and rotted away, completely forgotten. No, he wasn't forgotten. Master Wily could not forget about him. This was just some test. Those Rock Killers or whatever would fail miserably, and then Forte would be brought back up to command. In that case, he should go out and practice. Maybe she would be caught in an 'accident' and pay for her insolence. She really had been annoying. Running away was incredibly stupid of her.

The afternoon passed Forte by while he sat thinking. His thoughts ranged from furious to despairing. But they always wound up back on her.

Evening fell, and darkness fell faster. Nighttime was always most dangerous in Balna. Many more monsters were awake, and the shadows were far more powerful. People underestimated the power of shadows. Especially shadow imps. They looked at the small screechy creatures and felt them not dangerous. But the venomous creatures traveled in packs of at least thirty, usually far more. When a pack of imps descended on the unwary traveler, they could overwhelm in seconds. In that case, being killed was lucky. Being left alive usually meant some arcane and twisted curse had been placed upon you.

Forte wondered what he should have for supper. Normally, Roll had something done before the sun went down. And she sang when working most of the time. Her cooking was great and her singing was nice to listen to. But if she dies or gets cursed out there, it's her fault.

Why had she run off anyhow? He should have put that plate back on her head. Maybe she was getting tired of waiting on her brothers. Forte was getting tired of waiting for them too. He was half-inclined to go track them down and kill them before she found them. That is, if she made it out of the forest alive, which was unlikely.

He closed his eyes. His mind drifted to when she held him when he cried. That was never getting out of this cabin, or he would never be formidable again. Then again, no one had ever made such a caring gesture toward him. It was all discipline and hierarchy in the Wily clan, and not a bit of caring. Not a bit of comforting.

It occurred to him that maybe she ran off for his protection. Did she care enough for him to put herself in danger so that her brothers wouldn't engage him in a lethal battle? She was definitely protecting them. But could she be protecting him as well? He tried to dismiss the idea as ridiculous, but it was so powerful that it had to be true.

After realizing that, it wasn't long before Forte was out tracking Roll. She was headed in the right direction this time. She was alone and had no idea how to move through the woods. He spotted every single sign she left behind. Footprints, hair, bent branches. And she got impressively far for a novice.

And her fire building skills were decent, Forte decided on observing her campsite. Decent enough to keep most things away. He walked up behind her, only betraying his presence with a single snapping twig. "This was incredibly stupid of you."

She didn't seem too surprised, and in fact smiled at him when he sat by her. "It wasn't much smarter to stay. I found some potato things; I hope they're all right."

He glanced at the tubers on a hot rock. "They nasty, but safe."

"Are we headed back now, or later?"

Forte's attention was now on the fire, and a couple of enchantments to make the camp much safer. "What the hell were you thinking? Do you really think you can make Kykital on your own?"

"I can track satellite signals and call someone for help when I get in range."

"Cute. There's a road over that way that'll get you there quicker and safer."

"You don't mind me knowing this?"

"If you want to get home, fine. But I'll make sure you get out of the forest safely."

She looked at him curiously as he came back from fixing the fire. "You're just out to fight my brothers, aren't you?"

"No, that's not it."

"Then what is it?"

"Roll..."

She waited, trying to read his face for the answer.

He kissed her.

* * *

September XX09  
outside Balna Forest

This is like fighting myself, Rock thought as his battle with Quint kept going. Quint was also a black wizard of high caliber. He seemed to have exactly the same skills and powers Rock had. And they even looked alike, except Rock had green eyes where Quint had red eyes. They were alone in this field, so both were using their powers to the fullest. At least, they thought they were alone.

There was a blast from a shotgun. Quint, in the middle of a long cast, got hit and interrupted. Rock took the opportunity to fire Piercing Ray when he couldn't block it.

The Rock Killer growled. "This is a solo duel!" Then he cast Beta, a fire spell with a wide attack radius.

Rock cast A-fire to keep from being badly hit by Beta. In response, Quint threw a Blizzard Punch at him, knocking him to the ground. Whoever had the shotgun fired again, and Quint decided to leave before the second attacker put things too much in Rock's favor.

"Rock!" a woman's voice shouted.

He sat up and was puzzled at the sight. The blond ponytails sort of looked like his sister's, but she was wearing a red flannel jacket, a tan t-shirt, muddy jeans, and hiking boots. And she had the shotgun, when Roll had never touched a weapon in her life. But, it was her. "Roll?"

She kneeled by him, not minding the post rain muck at all. "Are you all right? You look terrible."

He touched his face, where long scrapes remained from Quint's first attack. "This is nothing. Are you all right?" He looked her over. She didn't seem hurt, and she looked healthy. Rock sat up and hugged her. "Where have you been? We've all been worried sick about you."

"I've been lost here." She looked back into the woods. "I'm fine, I guess."

"What happened to you? And where'd you learn to shoot like that?" He laughed. "You want to join me in battle?"

She blushed. "Oh, no, I'm not really that good at it. Got lucky on that first shot. But, um..."

"What?"

"I'm not really sure what happened," Roll said quietly. Then she started crying.

Rock wondered if she was confused or overwhelmed, or just relieved to see him again. He had no idea that she was crying because she and Forte had decided there was no way they could stay together as things were. Not knowing, Rock took her hand and teleported them both home.

* * *

October XX09  
Light residence

Roll tried to read a romance book, but it was hard to keep her mind on the story. She kept thinking of what happened over the spring and summer. She knew she should forget. She knew there was no way it could work out. At least no one else knew what happened. She hadn't even told her friends, although she had been tempted to many times.

Besides, he probably had forgotten about it. Or maybe he was made to, given how Forte explained things to be in Wily's clan. They really should have never gotten together.

Then again, it was nice to remember and daydream about it.

The locks on her window clicked open. Nervously, Roll stood up and started to go get her brothers. But when the window opened, she shut the door instead. "Forte," she said in a loud whisper. "What are you thinking?"

"Hi," he said breathlessly, then kissed her.

"My brothers are right across the hall. If they find you here, you're in a lot of trouble."

"I can't forget you. I'll take the risk."


	38. Adrian and Eldritch Shadetree

XX15  
Light residence

In one room, Roll hummed a lullaby while fixing a loose doorknob. Down the hall, Rock was singing boisterously as he fixed a window screen. They were supposed to be fixing up the house for insurance purposes, but both had their minds elsewhere. For a month, Rock had spoken of a contract job he had for a woman, Adanya. Now that he was in love with her, he wouldn't stop talking or thinking about her. Roll was in love too, but something had happened.

Rock stopped singing. Roll paused, then moved into the empty room to look it over. Her brother was talking to someone, but she couldn't make it out. It was probably just one of his friends. She looked over the room and thought again that these empty halls would make a nice homey inn. That is, if she could talk Thomas into it.

"Hey sis." Rock leaned in the doorway. "You've got a visitor. Eldritch Shadetree."

The name was unfamiliar. Out in the hall was a well-dressed (and utterly handsome) reploid with violet hair. He didn't seem familiar... but then she saw the charm around his neck, made with a wolf tooth

She smiled. "Oh, hello, Eldritch. Mind coming in here to talk?"

"If you don't." He stepped in and before long, Rock excused himself to go work on the window again. He went back to his song.

"Is he always like this at home? I admit I've never seen his private life..."

"Only lately. He's in love. And on that note, Forte," she touched the tooth, "what are you doing here? You look different."

He smiled. "Better too, I would hope."

"You look civilized, which is a strange look on you."

"It's an Elf spell called Glamour. It took me a good six months, but I got one of the forest sylphs to teach me. They use it to make ordinary rocks look like gold, and glass to look like jewels. I thought if your family knew me as someone else, maybe I could be closer to you."

"So how do I know it's really you?"

"You knew me. I knew you would. But if you must," he whispered something to her.

She giggled. "All right, I'll take that as proof."

"We're going to have to find a way to fall in love publically. Which means we'll have to cool things off for a while. That'll be hard."

"Which means no sneaking into my windows after midnight."

"How about before then?" They laughed, then Forte went on, "But once I get your family to like me, we could keep together without all this deception."

"What about your family?"

"I can get Forte killed. I'll throw away everything that is him to be with you."

"That's good. But, well... it's a bit late to be starting this plan."

"How's that?"

She took his hand and put it on her forehead. "I have someone with me."

It took him a moment to realize what she meant. He stroked her hair. "Are you sure?"

"I've been trying to avoid this, so I've checked myself every month. He showed up this time."

"You sure it's a boy?"

"I know. But if I know, he has to be almost two months developed, so any time now, dad or Rock is going to notice his aura. Maybe Glamour will fool them, but the presence of our son won't."

"Can't we put him in stasis until we're ready? That's why your father invented that process."

"He's a little young for that. I mean, we could, but something might happen."

"Something worse might happen if they notice."

"I suppose I can watch him carefully. If there's no change in a month, then he'll be okay for a longer time if needed."

"Then I'll work on getting myself independent quickly. We may have to fabricate some background so this doesn't seem sudden to them..."

Roll laughed softly. "Rock's known his girl for only a month. We'd have to try hard to look more sudden than them."

Forte grinned. "All right then. What time do we meet tonight for..." he paused. They had stepped into the hall, where Rock could partly see them. "For the plan?" he said softly.

"Eleven or so," she whispered back.

"Okay." He gave her a small kiss. "I'll see you then."

A couple of minutes after he left, Rock walked by Roll with a goofy smile on his face. "Is this our season for romance?"

"Rock!" She burst into laughter.

"Hey, you were the one to tell me to follow my heart." He patted her shoulder, then whispered, "I won't tell dad, for now. And we're busy today, but later, you have to tell me about that guy."

Roll gripped his hand. "Of course."

That night, Forte returned and they secretly transferred their son to a special computer. This froze his development and would hopefully keep him safe until they were ready for him. Roll decided to list him as Adrian and Forte put together an extra security program so nobody else would find him.

* * *

XX15  
Fort Wily

Looking normal again, Forte walked through his father's new main base of operations. The Light brothers still held the winning side in this war, and he still hated them. But for their sister's sake, he might have to learn to love them.

There was something different in the air. His siblings (mostly brothers, but there was a female occasionally) were all quietly busy. There had always been an emphasis on living a military lifestyle, but there has also been an allowance for self. Normally, Forte would hear chatter, laughter, maybe a game going on. But not today. He shivered.

It reminded him of when he first awoke as a reploid. It wasn't long after Rock; Master Wily wanted to keep in step with his former partner's technology. While trying to figure out his new soul, and his new warlock type magic, he talked to his siblings. He tried to do things with them, just for fun or experimentation. But they were all robot masters, obedient to their maker's will. Then, the halls had always been quietly busy.

He pushed the unease out of his mind as he knocked on the office door. "It's Forte, sir."

"Come in."

Inside, Master Wily and his human son Ikari were reviewing some battle plan. Ikari was a strange young man. He only wore black and white when he had white hair and black eyes. And it was hard to say if his skin had any color, because it seemed not to. It seemed gray, like in the earliest visual recordings. Even his lips were pale gray. Albert at least had color to his form.

"What did you call me for?" Forte asked. His old self might have wished for some mission or order to prove himself. Now he hoped for an excuse to vanish.

"We have big plans in the works," Albert said. "The two of us have much to discuss about where you'll be placed. Go ahead, sit down. We'll be talking for a while, so have a drink or snack if you wish."

He felt wary, but sat down. He picked up the glass that had been placed for him and pressed his ring finger against it. Sensing no poisons, he took a sip. A third of the crackers on the plate were poisoned, though. He hadn't gotten to the point where he could identify what poison was there, but he noted that the two humans avoided the poisoned crackers. Forte did so as well.

"You will be upgraded shortly," his father went on. "We need everyone to be in top form. How have your battles been recently?"

Forte talked with them about upgrades, and potential battles, and potential enemies. He was surprised that Albert wanted him to participate in the discussion. Years ago, this was normal. And then Forte fell out of favor, so he rarely spoke to his father. At yet now, Albert wanted his opinions again, his views and insights. Something of his old self was stirred back to life. He was becoming important again. But his priority was to Roll now, and their child.

He got up himself another drink; he'd been thirsty when he came in and all this talking was drying up his mouth. Not to mention how nervous he was about this long discussion and his plans. He sat back down and said, "I've been considering leaving."

His power core froze as he realized what he'd said.

Albert Wily nodded. "Tell me why."

He needed some lie. He thought he had something, started to say it, but wound up betraying himself. "I have a child... by... Roll Light." He even tried stalling it, but it didn't work.

The glow from his father's eyes brightened, making his face streaked with black rays. Forte tried not to shudder, but whenever his father did that, it made him feel horrible.

"Describe the circumstances," Ikari said in an even tone.

"Go on."

Unwillingly, Forte spoke of what had happened. He tried to stop, but felt no control over himself. His father watched him. Ikari made notes.

When he was done, his father glared at him. "Traitor."

Forte felt horribly sick and feverish under his father's disapproval. "No, please, I..." but what excuse was there? "What... what truth potion did you use on me?"

"Not a truth potion; a loyalty potion. All of your siblings have been put under it."

"Until we find a permanent solution," Ikari commented.

"But none of them gave me an excuse to test just how strong it is. It should react to verbal and telepathic orders. Now, Forte."

He pulled out one of his daggers and activated it. His hand brought the blade to his neck before he realized what the order was. He stopped. In response, the potion made his head feel like it would explode. "Please don't," he begged before his voice was cut off too.

"Hold on a moment, father," Ikari said.

Albert let him go. Forte dropped his dagger, feeling lucky to be alive. "What now?"

"I don't have exact signs yet, but this is promising."

The master went over and looked at his son's computer. Then he smiled. "You might have done us a favor," he told Forte, who hated the way that sounded. "Very well, you will be left alive. Even upgraded to match everyone else. But they will all know you as a traitor. Go."

Forte picked up his dagger and left. When he was out in the hall, he pulled a small bag out of his pocket. It was something Roll had given him when they put Adrian in stasis. A worry doll; she had an identical doll and bag, made from the same length of thread and the same piece of cloth. For a minute, he was tempted to throw it away, for betraying her. But then he recalled that she called it primitive magic. It was to bring them back together.

Although he had doubts about that working, he put the doll and its bag away.

* * *

XX19  
Light residence

Roll put her head on the stasis computer and wept.

What hadn't gone wrong? Forte's plan to become Eldritch never got beyond being a plan. Now he was dead, executed by one of his brothers for 'high treason'. Blues was unconscious a few rooms down. He had come back from battle in terrible shape and now was having trouble restarting because of head trauma. Rock had vanished. People said he went to chase down Master Wily and now, a full two weeks later, there wasn't a trace of him. Nobody could confirm if Wily was dead or what. And Thomas was in poor health, likely due to his worry over his sons.

In the stasis computer, Adrian slept.

* * *

January XX51  
Monsteropolis

The Monsteropolis City Wall was impressive, an imposing obstacle to any who would attack the city from the outside. An army could besiege the city for years and not get in. However, a single highly-skilled thief might be able to breech the wall. One was attempting the break-in now, using sticky rope to scale the structure.

He paused ten feet from the top. There began the magic shields around the city. They were so large that the spell Shield Break stood no chance. They were so sensitive that they would set off alarms with the least bit of trickery. Except one bit of trickery which he had used many times. He pulled out a hacker card, set to match the maintenance crew. There was a secret slot between the bricks; running the card through that put a small hole in the shield so he could climb in.

After scrambling to the top, he waited for the hole to seal back up. He didn't wish anything to come in with him and alert the Guard. When it sealed, he jumped off the wall and ran into the city.

Forte had broken into Monsteropolis enough times to know exactly how to proceed. He had been here a couple times this year already, preparing for this night. After several years worth of planning, arranging, and researching, he felt ready. This was something he did not want to mess up.

Besides, the Wily clan had been passive for the past decade. If they were active, he wouldn't dare. It was safe, he reassured himself.

He went directly to the Light family's home tonight. Last time he'd been here, he'd put his son under stasis. Now was the time to wake him up, and... he was still undecided on one part, but that was the only unknown part of this plan.

It was an inn now, so there were many people inside. Forte examined the building until he located an unoccupied suite. He entered the window by deactivating the screen and enchanting the lock. That was really the best way to get inside this place unnoticed. The outer doors all had bells or alarms on them.

He left the suite and went down the hall swiftly. At the hall across from the stairway, he had to stop. Someone was walking around down here. The halls were too well lit to hide in. If he had to, he could knock that person out. But he hoped he or she wouldn't come this way.

The person sighed. "I hope this issue gets resolved," she said quietly, probably thinking herself alone.

Forte's power skipped a bit. Roll. He felt a strong impulse to go to her and tell her what he meant to do. But could he admit that he had told his father about Adrian? No, not now. He kept flat against the wall. Although he prided himself on his skills, he hoped that luck would be with him and she would go upstairs.

It took a minute, but she did go up by the central staircase. Forte went across the hall and went downstairs, to the lab that held the stasis computer.

Premature reploid minds were supposed to be secured in their mother's mind. But in an emergency, they could be transferred, either to another female or even their father's mind if he was the only one willing. Forte had to undergo an intense operation to prepare himself for this, to rework his mind to shelter an unborn child. He was no longer disoriented and his headaches were vanishing, which meant he was ready.

He accessed the program he had written years ago, hoping that Master Wily hadn't tried to take him first. Thankfully, Adrian was there. Forte checked his statistics to make sure he was stable. They were on the low side, but acceptable. He wired himself to the computer and began the transfer.

Fifteen minutes later, he disconnected. He took another minute to get used to his son's presence. It was like being telepathically connected to someone who was sleeping. Forte could feel Adrian's soul close to his own, but his son didn't respond. Instead, he kept dreaming. Did the children dream at this point in development?

Whether or not they did, this wasn't the time to debate it. Forte escaped the building for another one. He would begin a new life; if things went well, he would be with Roll again before their child started his own.

* * *

February XX51  
Monsteropolis

That year was unlike any other Forte ever lived through. He moved into the city and got a society-accepted job as an apartment maintenance worker. He joined a new parents support group, claiming to be a widower. It was helpful; he'd raised wild animals, but that wasn't much help for raising a child. The first signs of trouble came late one night, just a week after he got Adrian back.

Forte woke up in the middle of the night, feeling panicked. Rubbing his eyes, he tried to figure out why he was so alarmed. He seemed all right. He walked around his apartment, but he found no signs of any thief trying to enter. And he would know those signs, from covering his tracks. He couldn't think of any nightmare, unless it had already slipped his mind. And Adrian...

Adrian felt sickly.

That was an appropriate panic. But he couldn't panic; the group said the reploid child could feel the parent's emotions. That was proven. And he had to get help, for which he needed to be calm. He grabbed a cloak, then sought out his records.

These records presented him as Eldritch Shadetree, a widower who had his child in mind because of a surprise attack on the snowfields. It was a believable story and the forgeries were top-notch. He was rightfully proud of this set of papers. But the test of forgery skills meant nothing now; he only hoped they didn't get him in trouble.

With that, he went to leave, planning on taking his sled to the hospital. Then he realized his hands were shaking, as he turned the doorknob and as he tried to lock the apartment. I really shouldn't drive in this condition, he thought. Maybe one of the night managers was awake and willing. As he glanced around the hall, he noticed one apartment with lights on. He knocked on that door.

A black skinned human answered the door. She was a student, someone who had been friendly to him. "Good evening, Mr. Shadetree. What's going on?"

"Miss Taylor, I could use your help. My son isn't doing well and I'm much too nervous to drive myself."

"Oh no. Hang on a minute; I'll take care of you."

Fifteen minutes later, Forte was being checked over by a nurse. Offering at least friendly support, Isabel Taylor stayed with him, talking and trying to relax him. He was hooked up to a diagnosis computer, specially design to not disturb a premature mind. Then the doctor arrived.

She was a tall woman with a rose tattooed on her cheek. "Hello, I'm Zeta Cain. Eldritch Shadetree, what's happened with your son?"

"I don't know," Forte replied honestly. "I just woke up in a panic and realized he felt sickly. Can you help him?" If he lost Adrian at this point, there was no chance at getting Roll back.

"I'll do everything I can." She looked over the computer. "He's quite young for being transferred."

"There wasn't anything else I could do. I'm just glad I had those programs installed, just in case my wife had troubles again." He thought momentarily of that poor man Star. Had they succeeded yet, or were his shadows disrupting their relationship? "I didn't expect her to die."

Isabel squeezed his hand. For a moment, he felt guilty about that lie.

"So it must have been post-mortem transfer. That's been known to weaken young minds."

"Is he going to be all right? I mean, he's not going to be handicapped or anything..."

"We will have to take extra precautions with this pregnancy. We're going to have to get you on supplements, work on your diet and routines, restrict some activities. I hope your job is flexible."

"I do apartment maintenance."

"Then no electrical work at all. Not even recharging batteries. And it looks like you'll need to stay the night while we strengthen the child."

"But what about his life? Will he have problems?"

Zeta shook her head. "No. The trouble will be getting him to life. Once he is born, he should be just fine."

Isabel handed him a piece of paper. "You call me whenever you're ready to come home. And don't hesitate to ask me for anything."

Forte smiled, feeling overwhelmed and glad for any friendship. "Thanks."

* * *

August 1, XX51  
Monsteropolis

Forte couldn't bring himself to go back to Roll before Adrian was born. The birth itself was a strange and mentally tiring event. Dr. Zeta Cain brought in his body, which had been constructed following Adrian's specifications and DNA plans. Due to the trouble of keeping him alive, he was starting out small. At only nine inches long, his body was proof of the excellent standards they were using today. The nurse was surprised they made him that small at all.

There was something that nearly darkened the day. Adrian looked exactly like one of Forte's last cousins. Zero Wily; he had been built, not fully programmed. At least, so Forte had thought. But on seeing his son, he wondered if Master Wily had stolen a copy of Adrian's plans and built Zero off them. It was strange, but within reason.

Then they extracted Adrian's mind and soul from Forte's. That left him feeling absolutely alone. The past four months, his son had been touching into his mind and the feel of him being active was reassuring. Now he was gone, and for a while it was dreadful.

Zeta had a life support machine start up Adrian's body as little more than an empty machine. Forte could listen to his breath, but knew it meant nothing. He even felt the fingers flex as power came to them, but that was still only mechanical action. Then they put his mind and soul with his body.

The next step was carefully removing the supporting machine as the infant took over his body. Still not quite alive. They pulled out the power cords and made sure his core was producing well. They pulled out the breathing tube and made sure he was working his own lungs.

Then he opened his eyes and that's when they all knew that Adrian was alive. The first conscious act of the reploid mind, the parenting group had called it. It wasn't always opening eyes, but that was the most common. One knew he was gathering information now as he hazily observed his father.

"Hello Adrian," Forte said.

And he came more alive as he heard and reacted to the voice by looking closer. It was a wonder.

* * *

Adrian was already sleeping, tired after being examined and crying when separated from Forte. Forte was resting himself, feeling happier than he had for a long time. If only Roll was here.

The door knocked. It was Isabel, with a camera bag at her side. She never carried a purse, only that camera bag. She did have her trusty camera out. "Hi Eldritch. Mind if I come in?"

"No come on in. You really taking pictures? I must look awful."

She chuckled as she came in. "It's the little child's birthday, so there should be lots of pictures."

"Take as many as you want of him. Just not me right now."

"Aw, we could brush your hair down a little bit." Isabel looked into the crib that Adrian slept in. "Oh, he's a beautiful little baby."

"Looks a lot like his mother." He sighed. Courage in battle was easy. Courage in personal affairs was difficult, he continually experienced.

"I'm sure she must be watching over him." She touched him gently. Not enough to wake him, but enough to get a twitch out of his arm. "I didn't know reploid babies were born with armor."

"A lot of us have a base armor, or at least a type acceptance, programmed into our DNA," Forte explained. "It will grow with him. Birth armor is an amazing invention; it replaces both clothing and diapers. It's considered a handicap if the child doesn't have one."

"That's interesting." Isabel took a picture of Adrian sleeping in the crib, then came over to Forte. "Come on, we can get you presentable for a picture."

"No you can't," he said with a gentle laugh. But she insisted and he really didn't mind her for it.

* * *

October XX51

Forte felt a pair of eyes watching him. He glanced down at the sling and saw that Adrian had woken up. He was watching.

"I'm looking at fruit in the grocery store," he said quietly. "See this apple?"

He looked at the yellow apple, touched it, and smelled it.

"It's not for you to eat. You don't have any teeth." He put the yellow apple up and picked out a green one. "Here's a different apple."

"Teaching her colors early?" someone said as they stopped to check the apples on sale.

"Just making conversation with him." The parenting group had suggested talking around the child even as he or she wasn't old enough to converse. He picked out his apples and moved on to the next item, tomatoes. He took a moment to tap Adrian on the nose. "You're going to have to be more manly from now on."

Adrian smiled, probably only knowing that the comment was directed at him.

Later, as Forte was trying to decide if one brand of rice on sale was less expensive than another with a coupon, he saw Roll.

He knelt down and pretended to consider a different type of rice. He was under a different disguise spell. Still, she had seen through the Glamour spell easily. He still wasn't ready to admit what happened. He felt deeply guilty, both about telling his father and stealing his son. Maybe he should have thought things through more; maybe he should have stopped her in the hall that night in January.

There was a loud crash in the next aisle, followed by a pungent vinegar scent. Whether it was the sudden noise, the strong scent, or both, Adrian didn't like it and started crying. Forte stood up, absentmindedly grabbed one of the rice bags, and tossed it in the cart. Then he stroked his child's head. "Hush, it was just an accident."

"You should probably move away from that pickle smell," Roll said. "Do you have any baby skin lotion with you?"

"Yes," he said, thinking immediately of where it was in his bag.

"Put a little bit on her nose. That should relax her." She smiled. "She's a beautiful little child, by the way."

"Yeah, thank you." He moved out of the aisle and followed that advice.

At the familiar smell, Adrian quieted a little. He blinked teary eyes and looked up at Forte, asking silently if things were okay now.

"It's okay, although we're probably going to smell vinegar for the next hour." He glanced back to see Roll still in the middle of the aisle. "But this is just great," Forte whispered. "Even your mother thinks you're a girl."

Adrian sniffled, then decided to put his head against Forte's chest to keep from smelling vinegar.

* * *

December XX51

Adrian now knew how to crawl. And he could move fairly quick like that. He just had to throw his hair back every so often as it slipped off his back and under his knees and hands.

Forte picked him up to keep him from entering the kitchenette. He tickled his son under his chin. "Now you know you're not supposed to be here. Get back to your place."

He laughed in response.

Earlier, he had put Adrian on the floor to play with a toy there. Now he put him in his playpen. "Here you go. Wait just a bit and I'll be over here again." He went back to making his supper.

"Autah," Adrian called.

"Autah to you too," he called back. He smiled as he finished up. "Nice to hear you joining the conversation."

Adrian grinned as Forte came back. "Bah."

"Don't bah me." He chuckled. "You're going to get noisy now, aren't you?"

Forte ate his supper as Adrian looked for something to do in his playpen. He crawled around, but space was limited. He sat and played with a ball for a moment, then decided he wanted to play with a rod of spinning blocks. However, that was above his reach. He went over to that spot and sat up. He looked at the rod, trying to figure out how to reach it.

Then, he grabbed hold of the mesh material and tried to pull himself up on two feet. He started to lift himself up off his knees. Adrian promptly lost his grip at that point and fell on his chest.

"You all right?" Forte asked. When he didn't cry, he said, "Try it again."

Adrian tried pulling himself up four more times, but never succeeded. He gave up on the rod for now and went for the ball, which was within easy reach.

When Forte was done eating, he went to the bathroom and took the rug there. He placed it on the floor. Then he took Adrian from his playpen and sat with him on the rug. "I'll give you some help."

Adrian was picked up and placed on his feet. He moved his hands down to start crawling as soon as his dad let him go. But he didn't let go. Grasping his dad's arms, Adrian tried to look down at his wobbly feet. "Uuhhh..."

"You're fine; I won't let you get hurt."

He tried shifting his weight to a steadier stance. His hair moved, changing his balance. Although this made him slip, Forte caught him and put him back upright. They kept working at it. After some time, Adrian managed to find a steady balanced posture. Forte moved his hands from his son's waist to his arms.

He smiled. "Teih."

"Very good," Forte said proudly.

Right after that, Adrian slipped again. When Forte caught him, he put his right hand to his lips and patted.

"Hungry now, are you?" He stood up, carrying Adrian. "All right, let's go warm up your supper."

It was a happy evening. Unfortunately, it was the last.

* * *

December XX51  
June Street Apartments

Forte and several of his neighbors were decorating their floor lobby for Christmas. Isabel was watching the two kids, Adrian and a human boy named Kevin. She had her camera, as always, and was taking pictures of them playing with a Christmas bow. And sometimes keeping Adrian from chewing on it.

"Eldritch, would you mind if I use some of the pictures of Adrian?"

"What for?" he asked, while working on light strings.

"I've got an end-of-semester display of baby portraits. Mostly studio, but I think I need variety. And he's just adorable." She pinched his ear, making him squeal. Several people chuckled at that.

"Go ahead. Will the displays be open to the public?"

"Yes, but I'll make sure to get you an invitation for the opening night."

* * *

"So you're going to be in an art gallery," Forte told Adrian while brushing his hair. "You'd better not get prissy on me."

"Bau ga," Adrian replied. Normally he was quiet at this time, just before bed. But the comments, although unintelligible, were a welcome change of pace.

"That's right, because I'm going to train you well. Not in thievery, but I'll make sure you're a skilled warrior."

"Hmm."

"The training can wait. I like how things are right now."

"De," followed by a twist of his head.

"Hold still."

Adrian giggled at the tone.

Forte shook his head and smiled. "I'm not going to get done if you squirm."

* * *

Adrian was fast asleep. Forte watched IC shows, but nothing really caught his attention. He half closed his eyes, thinking it might be best to go to sleep...

A signal went off in his mind. Programs that hadn't functioned in years started up. Forte jumped to attention, knowing he had little time. The loyalty programs would only respond to one person.

The playpen was already folded up and tucked under the couch. Two bottles were in the draining rack by the sink; he put those in the cabinet with the pans. Trash was fine, nothing betraying Adrian's presence. Forte took off most of Adrian's armor for bed, so he put that in a container and put that under a chair. There was a pastel green blanket with sheep; the parenting group gave it to him just before the birth. He folded that in a hurry and put it under some towels in the bathroom.

That seemed to be it. He glanced around his apartment. He could always say he didn't want anyone in his bedroom.

The crib was viewable from part of the main room.

Forte went to the bedroom and gently pushed the crib against the wall. Adrian didn't stir. If something happened, one of the neighbors would hear his cries and come check. He hoped nothing happened, but when it came to his father...

The door knocked.

He wanted to ask who it was, then claim wrong address. But the loyalty programs, installed a few weeks right before the last big battle, forced him to go open the door.

At first, he only saw Ikari, meek and colorless as always. He came inside, along with an odd machine. It looked like Master Wily's old saucers, but only two feet wide. On top of that was a glass cylinder filled with liquid, wires, tubes, and what remained of Albert Wily: his brain, his eyes, and possibly his tongue. Rock must have beat him up badly, Forte thought.

"Here you are," Ikari said. "Our father wishes to speak with you."

"Why are you still alive?" Master Wily started out with. "Quint reported you executed."

"I'm not quite sure," Forte replied. "He only left me half-dead."

"Then why did you not kill yourself for treason, betrayal, and cowardice?"

"I felt being exiled was more suitable, so I would never forget my mistakes."

Actually, the disaster of the last large battle between the Wily clan and the Light brothers (and their allies) wasn't entirely his fault. It wasn't even mostly his fault. The clan as a whole had failed on several levels, from misunderstood orders to false reports of readiness. Plus, the Rock Killer Ballade found himself in a situation Forte was all too familiar with. He was strapped to a doomed mission where he was alone and they had underestimated the enemy. Knowing that truth, plus knowing that he still intended on getting free, Forte took responsibility for Ballade's failure.

And that somehow mushroomed into Forte being marked responsible for the whole disaster. Thus, he was a greater traitor and coward than before.

"And what are you doing here, in the enemy's city?"

"Working in subservient roles below my usual ranks."

"It has nothing to do with your child, then," Ikari said.

Forte kept silent.

"That child is alive," Albert said. "Bring him to me."

Forte kept still. The loyalty spell made him dizzy and nauseated. Although he couldn't lie, he managed to stand there for a minute.

"I could get him, if need be," Ikari offered. "But the child would likely wake up and we would have to eliminate all witnesses in this building."

"Give him to Ikari now," Albert said angrily.

Those words pounded into his head. There would be no silent disobedience to that. Forte went to the bedroom and picked Adrian up.

His son stirred slightly, but recognized him. Trusting him, he went back to sleep. This is entirely the wrong time to trust me, Forte thought. He wanted to teleport away and hide elsewhere. Yet he knew that his father could track him down. Besides, he felt disconnected from his own body now. In a dreamlike haze, he handed Adrian to Ikari.

Holding the infant in one arm, Ikari took his white gloved hand and touched Adrian's forehead. "He is as I calculated, an ideal match. We should have no problems going ahead.

"Excellent. Now, since you believe life is worse punishment than death... you will forget all about us and your child..."

* * *

December 25, XX60

"Then how do you remember all this now?" Zero asked.

The story had gone on so long that the inn guests had all departed. Forte absentmindedly touched his eyes. "When I went to break the silver eye that would strengthen the loyalty spells, I remembered. Not everything. I can't remember much of that night still, except in the form of nightmares."

Roll hugged him. "It's all right, dear. There's nothing you could do about it once they tricked you into accepting those spells."

"I'm not sure Master Wily understood you right," Dahlia said. "You said living while remembering your failure was worse than death. But he told you to forget."

"There is a lot that he didn't understand. I would have lived in complete ignorance of everything that was important to me, except that something happened."

"What?" Solstice asked.

"Isabel happened. My friend, the photography student."

* * *

December XX51

The doctors were puzzled. He had amnesia stemmed from smoke inhalation? There was no sign of other trauma, and he had been found unconscious in his burning apartment. Neighbors asked about his infant son, who was supposed to have been in the bedroom asleep. No one had heard him cry. There was nothing left of the bedroom but ashes.

"You're free to go, Mr. Shadetree," the doctor said.

My name is Forte Wily, he thought. But he didn't correct him.

He went down the hall, feeling lost. What was he doing here? Why had he been living in Monsteropolis? For that matter... what happened in the past few years?

When he entered the lobby, a black woman stood up. "Eldritch, I'm sorry, this is so terrible." She hugged him.

That's not my name, he thought. But it was his codename for... what? Something. He shook his head. "Sorry, I don't remember."

She stepped back, aware that she was now a stranger. "I don't want to believe this is happening. You and Adrian were so happy."

"Adrian?" Something nearly came to mind.

"Oh, yes. Here." She handed over a photo album. "Maybe that will help you remember."

There was a picture on the front of him and an infant reploid with long blond hair. His attention was on the child, and the child's attention was on a bright orange flower whose blossom was the size of his face. Forte realized that something was missing from this moment, and that something was Adrian.

They had said nothing was left of the bedroom but ashes. And yet he had a distinct image...

A colorless monster of a person had taken his colorful child away.

* * *

July 31, XX54  
Balna Forest

" _I have the children_ ," the White Demon called.

"Good." Forte raced over to the place they had landed. Nobody had acquired Trump's lavish house. When the wolves told him two children were coming towards the Hydra's lake, he went right over and turned on the lights. When the Dark Hunters appeared, he called on the Hydra for assistance.

Was that Adrian? The hair and the armor looked right. But the other child was in greater danger; his aura indicated that his body was poisoned. Forte went to find out what poison and what antidote. The first question out of the blond child was a confused, "Who are you?"

And then, about half an hour later, he learned that the poisoned child was named X and the blond child was named Zero. Not Adrian.

But he looked so much like Forte's forgotten child that he had to be. He swore to himself that he would see to their safety.

* * *

December 25, XX60

Light residence

"Aw, that was a sad story," Solstice said.

"It got happy eventually," Zero said, knowing how things went from there.

"Can we have a happy story next?" she asked.

Forte sat back and shrugged. "I'm not sure I have many stories that would count as happy."

Daisy smiled. "Iris has the cutest story about her brother and her cat."

"Oh, about Piper?" Iris laughed. "He doesn't like me telling that one."

"But he's not here, is he?"

"No, he's not."

* * *

November 17, XX52  
playground, Maple Street

Fifteen minutes and they had to be home. Sandy paused at the top of the tall slide and looked around. Iris didn't seem to be anywhere.

"Hey, you going down or what?" the boy behind him asked.

"All right, pushy." Sandy went down and ran over to Ash, who was looking at bugs. "Hey, have you seen Iris lately? We've got to start home."

Ash paused while he checked his internal clock. "Yeah, it's about time for me to leave too."

"What about my sister?"

"She was over at those swings last I saw. I'd help you look, but I've got to help mom."

"All right, go ahead. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, later." Ash left.

He went to the far swings and looked around. No... there she was. Over by an alleyway. Sandy ran over to her. "Iris, we're not supposed to be over here."

She was only two. "Look, I found a kitty."

"Mew," the kitty said. It was an orange and white kitten, not quite a cat.

"I've been looking, but I can't find its mommy."

"We've got to be home soon."

"But can't we find the kitty's mommy? Please? If not, we can take her home."

"We can look. I'm not sure mom will let us have a cat though. She's only let me have frogs."

"But you only ever asked for frogs."

"I suppose. Well, let's look for the mommy cat. Don't go too far."

"Okay." They searched around.

Sandy thought about it. A group of kittens, or even just the one, would catch the attention of every kid at the playground. And they hadn't, so they had to be well hidden. They also had to be somewhere warm and protected. He looked around for open doors or windows. Despite the cold, some people kept windows open. But no such luck.

He was about to tell Iris that they should go on home when he realized he didn't know where she was. Quelling his fears of losing her, he called out, "Iris? Get back here!"

"I'm here." Her voice had a metallic echo following.

Sandy followed that to a manhole that had been left open. He felt mad; Iris couldn't lift that herself, so someone had left the cover elsewhere. "Get out of there! It's dangerous."

"I'm okay. Let me get the kitty." Her footsteps echoed, away from the manhole.

Sighing, Sandy went down after her. There was a staircase that spiraled down fifteen feet. It was warm down here, probably inviting to the kitten. This lead to a walkway through a large tank. Taking out his flashlight to see the path, Sandy followed his sister.

"Hey, big brother," Iris called from above him.

He sent his light to her. She squinted, indicating she had been down here a few minutes. The orange kitten was beside her. "This isn't a place for kids. Or kitties. Let's get out of here."

"Okay." There was an electric motor and a release of locks. "What's that sound?"

Sandy felt his pulse speed up. If he remembered right, the building above was the water treatment plant. And it had snowed heavily last night. To confirm his fears, he heard water come into the tank. He pointed his flashlight past Iris and spotted stairs. "Let's go this way."

Iris didn't move as he came up. She was watching the streaks of light on the incoming water. "Why? This is neat."

Because the concrete here is water stained, Sandy thought. "We'd better go up."

"Okay." She picked up the kitten, who started purring. How could they not be worried? He didn't know how fast the water would come in, but he knew it would be bitterly cold. As reploids, they could survive being underwater (the kitten was out of luck). But the cold would freeze up their systems and that could kill them. At least badly injure them. And the machinery here might also be dangerous.

There was an unlatching from above. Sandy felt a brief added panic until a door opened. Seconds later, an octopus reploid slithered down the steps. He paused. "What are you kids doing in the tank?"

Sandy tried not to turn red in embarrassment. "We, um, got lost. The cover at the playground was off."

"Look mister, I found a kitty!" Iris said, triumphant. Oh great. And here he was trying not to look like an idiot.

"I had to come after her," he added. "I have to protect her."

"I see. Well, you'd best get to the door upstairs. The technicians will let you out; tell them about the missing cover."

"Thank you, sir."

"Right, here you go." The octopus picked them up in his tentacles, making Iris giggle. His suction cups did tickle, but Sandy did his best to remain serious.


	39. Unnatural Intelligence

December 25, XX60  
Fort Cerise

X walked through the fort halls, gripping two backpacks. His dad had called him three hours ago, asking that he bring these items up to his office. From the list (light clothing, towels, a blanket, presents), he suspected they were going on a picnic somewhere. He was glad to be leaving the fort, even if it would only be a couple of hours.

He stopped at a security checkpoint. A guard he didn't know asked, "Are you lost? Children are not supposed to be here."

"It's only X," the other guard said. "Master Rock's son. Did your father call you up here?"

"Yes, m'am." He handed over his security pass.

"He's allowed this far into secured areas?"

"He's a good young man." She handed back his pass. "But we still have to scan you."

He smiled. In the past six months, Rock had been testing security at several forts. One of the tests here was when he gave X a volatile potion and had him bring it to his office. He trusted X to handle the potion properly, but he also trusted the guards to stop him because of it. But X made it to Rock's office with the potion. So now they always checked him and anyone who lived here. "I know."

After being scanned, he went into the officer's hall. The highest ranking individuals in the Field Patrol all had offices here. Rock and Blues actually shared an office suite, but Blues was rarely here. Following the rules, X went straight to his dad's office and looked nowhere else.

Rock was speaking with three others, so X knocked on the door. "I've got everything, dad."

He smiled. "Good. If you'll hang on a moment, something's come up."

He nodded. "Okay."

As the four went into another room to discuss the matter privately, X hoped that this 'something' didn't cancel the trip. There had been times when they planned an outing, but got interrupted by FP business. X understood this, but didn't like it.

To pass time, he pulled out his Tarot cards and randomly drew three cards. He picked up the habit from Rock. Although X did have a higher occurrence of drawings with meaning, it was still hit or miss. Lulani encouraged the exercise as a way to keep his third eye sharp. Hm, Lulani... he had canceled the two lessons that remained of this year only two hours ago. Did he know of Rock's plans?

His mind was soon distracted from his teacher by the cards. No matter how many times he shuffled, he pulled the same three. Which meant that he had a meaning. Tarot cards were complex to read, as each card had many layers of symbolism. Several symbols of one card might be needed for one interpretation. X had a knack for finding the right symbols, although sometimes even he took time. He observed the three cards and search for the right combination of symbols. The meaning wasn't for him, but...

Someone ruffled his hair. He looked up to see that two officers had left Rock's office. "Hey kiddo, you and your dad going out for Christmas?"

He smiled. "Yeah, I hope so."

"Well make sure he relaxes for once. Right now, he's stressed almost to the breaking point."

The other one laughed. "Yeah. Gotta admire him, but having his duties wound so tightly must wear on him. If he starts worrying about the FP, tackle and distract him."

X chuckled. "Will do sir."

They left. He sat back and looked at the ceiling. He knew Rock was working too hard. Perhaps some of it had to do with making up for the Soul Winter curse; it certainly had to do with his fighting with Roll. But he, Zero, and Equinox had a plan for getting the two of them to make up. Maybe this trip would be the lucky break.

Rock and the third officer came out. X knew two things right off. The two had disagreed on something, and the Tarot meaning was for the officer. He didn't know the man, but his current attitude already bothered X. One of his Guardian friends would have called the attitude 'holier-than-thou'. But if he had a meaning, he should pass it on.

"Excuse me, sir," X said, just before the officer left.

"What?" His tone indicated he had no time for questions.

He showed the three cards. "My Tarot says that you have not gone home for six months, although you could have several times."

He got caught in the truth momentarily, but resumed his toughness. "So?"

"So, my cards say that you should go home before next year starts. Even if only for an hour. You have to talk to your family, or there might be trouble."

"X is an oracle," Rock said, calm to the officer's annoyed look. "His readings are quite good."

"You should have taught him respect." Then he left.

"But it's the truth," X called, to no avail.

"Some people don't want to hear the truth," Rock said, with more uneasiness than should be there.

"He said something to distress you, didn't he?" X looked at his dad. "What'd he say to make you so upset?"

"It's," he hesitated.

X waited. He knew that hesitation. It came from everyone who really knew him and his talents. That hesitation meant it was something the person didn't want to admit, but they knew X would know a cover-up. Most times, X let cover-ups go; sometimes it truly was none of his business. Still, those who respected him hesitated while they decided on truth or disguise.

Rock shut the door and went for truth this time. "He asked me why I would tarnish my image by keeping my illegitimate child so close. He said that if I really wanted to keep you, I would marry someone so that you had a proper family. I know I've made mistakes before; I don't know why people have to point them out when I'm trying to take responsibility, to make things right."

X shrugged. "That kind of person feels insignificant, so they try their best to put others down to lift themselves up. I don't think that works. Just try to ignore his finger-pointing."

"I know. It still hurts." Rock paused. "X, do you mind not having a proper family? I know this life is hard on you, and I do worry about how you feel."

"I'm fine. Besides, if that guy is the image of a proper father, I'd much rather have you."

He smiled. "Thanks. Well, you ready to go?"

X jumped out of the chair. "Yes! Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise. Here, put this on." He handed over a blindfold. Once it was on, he led X to the teleport pod.

* * *

Lakitu Islands

The satellite grid had greatly improved in the past two years, so it wasn't long before X could smell a different air. It was salty, like an ocean. It was sweet, like some flower was in bloom. And sunlight fell warm on his face, so they were definitely somewhere far away. X felt somewhat disappointed that the surprise wasn't Monsteropolis and visiting his cousins. "Where are we?"

Someone laughed softly. Someone else shushed the first.

"Someplace special. Take a look." Rock took off the blindfold.

It was a tropical isle, dense with exotic plants and animals. Within view was a white sand beach with beautiful blue ocean spreading to the horizon. A tree close by was blossoming with feathery purple flowers, attracting unusual insects and birds. But before long, X's attention was drawn to the other people here. "Uncle Blues, Vijay!" He ran over to greet them.

Blues grabbed him for a hug. "Hey there kiddo. Welcome to Lakitu."

Vijay was now full grown. At eight feet tall with a wing span of around thirty feet, he was an impressive sight. He whistled, then leaned down to bump his head against X's. "Merry Christmas, X!"

X scratched the phoenix's head. "Merry Christmas to you too. What are you guys doing here?"

"Long story, and kinda embarrassing," Blues said. "I was solo flying a small plane over the ocean, checking on the grid stability. Found a dead point, so I started mapping the area for the engineers. And my plane decided to break down thirty miles into the dead zone."

"We were even having trouble with telepathy," Rock said. "Part of it was distance, but part of it was the ocean."

"More likely the problem was being over the ocean," X thought aloud. "Aura flows normally in the ocean because of life there, but there can't be much life in the ocean sky."

Blues waved it off. "Whatever it was, I had to ditch in the ocean. I couldn't contact satellites, no ship was around, I couldn't even get a hold of Rock..."

"I sent a search team," Rock said.

"Never saw sign of them. So I wind up stuck on my abandoned plane on the ocean, in the middle of nowhere, for three days. I hate being helplessly stuck in one spot, and I did try everything."

"And then I found him," Vijay said cheerfully. "I was just playing with dolphins when I sensed an aura of a reploid. I went to see, and there he was. I flew him here; it was hard, because the flight was long and he's heavy."

"I'm muscular, and my frame is made of metal."

"But I made it. And he could hear his space thingys here, so that was good."

"And so you have trouble and wind up on one of the most beautiful islands in the South Pacific." Rock laughed and clapped his brother on the back. "Excellent work."

Blues laughed back and shook his head. "Aw come on, give me a break. It's not always that I find paradise when I get in trouble. Besides, this is the perfect excuse to spend the rest of the year out of the Patrol."

"They can get hold of us, if they really need the help."

He slapped his head with feigned annoyance. "Rock, you weren't supposed to tell people! Geez, can't you take a break?"

"We'll be fine. I brought everything you asked for. Are you sure that's enough?"

"It's not like we haven't survived on less. We'll be eating lots of fish and fruit; there's a water filter here, so we can last as long as we please." Blues smiled at X. "If you don't mind being marooned on a tropical island paradise."

"No, this is great!" X replied.

* * *

They set up camp close to the water filter. It wasn't close to a traditional Christmas dinner, but they had freshly caught tuna, coconuts, small but tasty bananas, and some greens that Blues deemed safe to eat. It was wonderful, although X often found himself wishing his cousins were here to share.

Blues had given him a Swiss Army Knife and was showing him all the little tools. "If you've got one of these, a fire spell, and a water purifying spell, then you can survive just about anywhere."

X smiled. "Only 'just about' and not 'anywhere'?"

"Some places are a bit tougher than others. Just a bit. Like areas with a miasma."

"Like around Ikari Tower?"

"Yeah. Nasty place."

Vijay shivered. "I landed on its branches once. It made me feel so cold and lonely. Never again."

"I don't ever want to go near that place again," Blues agreed. "But if we're going to find the truth about Master Wily, we'll have to go at some point. We'll just need better protection, right Rock?"

"Hmm? Oh, right, the Tower. We have to get there sometime."

"You all right?" He looked worried for his brother. "You're not having a flashback to that battle, are you?"

"No, not that. Just thinking on other things." He gave a weak smile, then patted X's hand. "You know, this time next year, you'll be an adult."

"I know. How are we going to manage that? I already passed the test, but I still have to take the last set of classes. And there's no other kids around to do the ceremony with."

"Don't worry about that," Rock answered. "We can get you into any city's ceremony that you want."

Unsaid was that Monsteropolis wasn't an option. X tried to keep his mind off that disappointment. "Not that I really need to take that class. I already know the material, but it's the law."

"Just sleep through the class; you're smart enough," Blues teased.

Rock hugged X. "Now don't you go corrupting my son's integrity."

They laughed at that. Blues shrugged. "He is smart enough. But thinking of you as an adult... kinda weird, even though you're long overdue."

X was puzzled, but Rock added, "He's always been long overdue."

"What are you talking about?" Vijay asked, equally puzzled.

"Back to the time when we first heard X," Blues explained. "Not at Fort Madeline, though. No, way before that, when X made a record for the courts in being the only unborn child to give testimony."

* * *

XX18  
Monsteropolis

Rock slumped down in his chair as others came into the courtroom. "Already we're a day late and things are messing up."

"At least the child's outbursts will put more weight to making this resolution last," Thomas said, trying to encourage him. "Additionally, it makes her case look weaker."

He looked over to where Adanya had sat down. She somehow managed to read a book and look like she wasn't thinking of anything at all. Yesterday, her attempts to put forth her reasons for keeping their son were interrupted. The child kept speaking nonsense words, managing to make her look ridiculous. "I don't know why she's fighting it. She can't be too comfortable living like that."

"And who knows how far that child's mind has actually developed," Thomas mused. "I could swear that he was intentionally interrupting her most important points, as if he knew the argument."

"Maybe he's heard it so many times that he has it memorized."

The judge entered, so all conversation had to end.

Today, the child didn't interrupt. Adanya did keep hold of the book she'd been reading, or not reading. She made her points, although one could see her pause, as if anticipating some reaction.

She got done and the judge said, "All right, you may step down from the stand."

But the child apparently had different ideas. Adanya put the book on the stand and said, "Towchiipa!"

"So he is still there," the judge said jokingly. "Go on."

He meant back to her seat, but the child took it as a sign to open the book and point into it. "Mi ta. Mitan."

Thomas whispered over to Rock, "You could say that was 'my turn'."

Rock smiled at the thought.

"What is it now?" the judge asked.

"The book?" Adanya said, puzzled. "Oh, I just picked it up out in the lobby. Mitan. I haven't really read it. Stino."

He had one of his aides bring it up to look at it, particularly the page being pointed out. "Interesting, this would be the Reploid Family Guide by Master Thomas Light. Let's see... 'Do not attempt to give the child an inappropriate body. The body should match what is written in the mind.' Have you tried giving him a body?"

Adanya shook her head. "No, I couldn't afford... yes! I mean, I can't make him a body with all gribo, all the court expenses."

Thomas leaned forward and seemed very interested in observing Adanya and her child interact. Rock just hoped that this put things in his favor. After a little while of Adanya strongly denying making a body while the child strongly interrupted her, the judge changed the subject.

"Is there anything else in this book you wish to speak of?"

She came away from the stand to the judge's desk. "Well no. As I said, I never read that."

"Perhaps you should have," he said.

Adanya's hand started to touch the book, but then stopped.

"Let him."

"Fine, but it's probably more nonsense." She turned the book around and flipped through pages. There was another page the child found and pointed at. "Da!"

The judge turned the book around and frowned. "'Do not direct angry thoughts towards the child. This is akin to yelling, only the child will view it as much worse.' Have you... mentally yelled at your child?"

For a moment, she was stern. "No."

But then shifted abruptly to a distressed but hopeful gaze at the judge. "Yes, habini taya minu."

Rock tensed his right hand into a fist. Noticing, his father put his hand on that fist and shook his head slightly. An outburst was not needed from him. The child was doing well enough on his own.

Adanya came back into control of her mind. "This is ridiculous! He's just being defiant now, tired of being with me for so long. Besides, an unborn child can't read."

The judge looked over the book. "Master Thomas?"

He stood up. "Yes?"

"Do you have any records of a reploid child being able to read before birth?"

"No," he responded truthfully. "But, if I may speak on it."

"Go on."

"We have no records of any child being with his or her mother for two and a half years. Since child reploids develop mentally before they are born, the child mind may just happen to develop or steal a literacy program. It must be dreadfully boring to him to be stuck there."

"What do you suggest we do to resolve this issue?"

"Simple. Give the child a literacy test."

"I object to that," Adanya said. "You're going for some form of trickery."

"Then we'll have someone else administer the test," the judge said. There were a few minutes wasted as the judge sent for a court worker.

"Will this work?" Rock asked his father quietly.

Thomas shrugged. "I hope so. If it is proven that he can read, that will put his actions in court as a testimony. I think; it's worth a try."

The aide came back with the person in question, who was introduced as, "Brian Kinsey, sorcerer and trained hypnotist. Thank you for coming in without prior notice."

"No problem, your honor."

The judge explained what had happened with the child and his book. "Can you test this child for reading ability?"

Kinsey thought for a moment. "I believe I can. I'll need to use the projector, and another book. Madam, if you would sit here for the test."

Adanya sat in her seat while the projector was set up at the table in front of her. "I don't know how you'll prove anything with this."

"By taking you out of the picture," the sorcerer said. He passed his hand in front of her, then touched her eyes. "The mother sleeps, but the child remains awake."

Adanya's body slumped back into the chair. "Kee?"

"I have law books and a Bible up here," the judge said.

"The text might be too complicated or small."

Roll, who'd been watching with Blues behind Rock and Thomas, stood up. "I have a cookbook you may borrow."

"Let me see." Kinsey took the book and glanced over it. "This should work. Now, child, are you ready?"

The child looked up at him through his mother's eyes. "Yes."

"That's the only word he's managed so far," the judge said. "Keep that in mind."

"All right. Projector's set and running. Here you go." He handed over the cookbook open to one page. "I would like you to find the word 'bread' on this page. D."

The child took the book, then took a moment to figure out his mother's movement programs. Over on a blank wall, everyone in the room could watch as he placed his finger on the top of the page, which noted this was the section for breads, muffins, and biscuits. "Da." Then he moved down the page, catching three bread words in the titles and five more in recipes. He paused at the last incident, which was really the word 'breadbox'. "Deh?"

"That counts." Kinsey took the book back and searched for another test. He picked out two pages. "Now, see this recipe? Remember it."

It was Chicken with Wild Rice and Mushrooms. "Gabdi."

He turned to a page with a full color photo spread. There were twelve different dishes displayed. "Show me which one is that recipe."

It didn't take him long to point out the chicken dish. "Da!"

"That seems conclusive," the judge said.

"Not quite, your honor," Kinsey said. "I'd like to try one more thing. It is possible that he's picking up on subconscious signals as a sign for correct answers. I've seen a few 'reading' animals that way."

"Nadiba?" the child asked.

"Turn off the projector. And if you would, please move out of your reading range," he addressed that to a couple people near Adanya. Kinsey checked the cookbook one last time, then handed it closed to Adanya's child. "Your last test is to find the recipe for Boston Creme Pie. There is only one Boston Creme Pie recipe. If you find it too difficult, hold the book up and I'll narrow down the pages."

The child took the book back. But instead of asking for assistance, he turned back to the index. He checked first at B. When it was not listed, he went to P. It wasn't listed there either. "Kuu?" He checked C, where Boston Creme Pie was listed as a cake. "Gah." Then he turned straight to the page listed, looked, then pointed out the recipe. "Kaiyo!"

"This child seems to be a genius," Kinsey said, amazed like everyone else in the room.

The judge rubbed his chin. "Even if he is a genius, I won't have him on stand for very long. But while you have free say in the matter, little one,"

"Tapa?"

"Do you want to stay with your mother?"

"No," he said clearly.

"Do you want to stay with your father over there?"

He managed to look straight at Rock before saying, "Yes."

"All right. Put his mother back in control."

Kinsey undid the hypnosis and returned the cookbook to Roll. Adanya sat straight up in her chair. "So what did you get?"

"A clear decision on the child's part to go with his father," the judge replied. "Given the intelligence and will he has shown, I am going to go with his decision. Your son shall go with his father. You have forty-eight hours to get him placed in stasis for transferral to the Lights. This case is closed."

But twenty-four hours later, the child was reported as dead.

* * *

December 25, XX60  
Lakitu Islands

"Weird story," Vijay said from his perch.

"That explains why some of my dreams occur in courtrooms," X said.

"You remember that?" Blues asked.

"Not really, but I have a vague sense of familiarity with it. So I was unnaturally intelligent even before my life started."

"I don't know about unnaturally," his uncle said.

"I was always told it was unnatural. Even though sometimes it was hidden by politeness. Like at my graduation ceremony when I was four, I could tell. And back in the Tower, I was told that because of my intelligence, I could not be a child. It seems true; I don't really feel like I've had a childhood."

Something about this statement got to Rock, given the way his face paled.

"You okay dad?"

Rock shook his head and put his hand over his eyes. "Don't worry. Reminders of bad dreams from a bad time."

Blues reached over and patted his brother's shoulder. "That one never came true. And besides, you must have had some childhood."

"No. I had someone watching over me for a while, Circe. But she had a low opinion of me, and abandoned my care once I figured things out. And then I had to take care of Zero. I remember all of that. I hate thinking of it. And it drives me nuts because Zero has forgotten a lot of it. There's some stuff he remembers. There's some stuff I know he'll never forget. But I had to deal with the worst of things, and I can't forget."

"Some things you have to speak of to let them go," Rock said.

X looked at his feet and tapped them together. "I don't know about that."

"I don't think anyone here would seek to harm you with these memories," Blues encouraged.

He was supposed to be seeking memories from them about why they were fighting Roll. He almost refused, and then Vijay sang a brief melody. None of them would try to hurt him. And getting this out of his head might be a relief.

He hugged his dad, who responded by putting his arm around X's shoulders. "I guess not."

* * *

February XX51  
Ikari Tower

X was bored to death. He'd been lying on his back tracing cracks in the ceiling. He'd managed to flip himself over and count the bricks on all the walls. Now what?

He looked over at Circe, his caretaker. She was asleep on a couch. There was something in her hands. Twitching in dreams, she dropped the thing. It was quite some ways from the blankets X lay on. It was a new thing, and X was curious.

With some effort, he managed to get up and crawl. His new body wasn't strong, not yet, but his determination was. It was tiring, but he made his way over to the new things and looked at it. It was a book. At first, it just had lines and shapes on the cover. But then everything fell into place and the shapes made sense. The book was 'Reploid Family Planning Guide by Master Thomas Light'.

Something about it seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it. He opened the book and searched the table of contents. The first two parts didn't seem too interesting. But the third part, Infant Care, did. He was an infant. Maybe this would answer questions he had. He turned to the third part and started reading.

And it did answer questions, many of them. He learned about feeding, and changing, and bathing, and learning, and playing. Strange things he had to do, and differences he noted between himself and Circe, these began to make sense. But as he kept reading, more questions came up than answers. For one, how was he reading a book that said he shouldn't be reading until he was two years old? He was hardly two weeks old.

Then the book was snatched from under his nose. "Get your grimy paws off that," Circe said grumpily. "What are you doing over here anyhow?"

X looked up at her. She had a brown ponytail coming out of the top of her head that went below her waist. She most often wore white clothes, although her skin was fair in complexion. And she didn't match a single characteristic of a good caretaker, at least not according to this book. X whined softly for the book back. It said he wasn't old enough to speak.

"It's not for the likes of you. Now come on." She grabbed him in such a way that he had to grip her shirt in both hands to feel secure. "Let go, you'll get my clothes dirty. Time for your food."

Good, he was hungry. But she was never nice about it. This was just a job to her, X realized, nothing she enjoyed. Which was fine. He didn't like her either.

When that was done, she put him back on his blanket. Then she went to her desk and started her other job. Which was... X had no idea, but she worked there a lot, griping and cussing almost as much as she did when caring for him. He wondered if she liked anything.

He decided he liked reading. He wanted to read more, but she had put that book on her desk. However, there was a low shelf nearby with more books. Relatively low. X crawled over there and tried to reach it. After several tries and falls, he earned a round of cussing and something thrown at him from Circe. He retreated back to his blanket and reconsidered.

He couldn't reach the shelf on his hands and knees. However, if he stood up, he might be able to reach the books. But just getting up on his knees, he had discovered, took a tricky balancing act that his body wasn't quite up to yet.

X looked at the bookshelf and labeled it a challenge. At that point, he ceased being bored and became determined that he would soon walk.

* * *

First things first: get used to crawling. X moved around like that for a while, soon learning that Circe did not welcome him crawling into her half of the room. So he stuck to his side. He also learned that his body wasn't up to much exercise. He would crawl around for a bit, nap, then crawl around some more, and nap. Circe didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, even when she came over to take care of the needs he couldn't take care of.

After he felt confident with that, he decided it was time to try balancing again.

First on the blanket, so it didn't hurt so much to fall over. He found it much easier to get up on his knees. Balancing was still hard, but he stayed sitting up longer each time. Getting further off the ground was much too hard.

Looking around the room, he decided the best place to go next was the brown armchair Circe sat in at his feeding time. He grabbed hold of a green blanket and dragged it over. Then he got on his knees, grabbed the chair fabric, and pulled himself up. He wound up losing grip and falling on his back. That hurt enough that he cried out.

"Shut up," Circe said without even looking. "It's probably your own damn fault."

After calming down, he tried again. And fell again. He fell many more times before he managed to get himself on two feet while gripping the armchair. X's fingers trembled as he tried to remain upright. His body wavered until he found the right balancing posture. Then he let go, half-expecting to fall over.

He remained standing, but on his own now. X smiled to himself. That was part of the challenge. Now, to see about walking.

Circe's chair moved. X started to turn to her, to see what she was up to. But that made him lose his center of balance, making him fall over. He blinked and tried not to cry this time.

His caretaker saw him supporting his upper body with his arms. "Geez, you trying to sit up on your own? And what are you doing over here? Little devil." She grabbed him and the blanket, putting the latter back in its pile. "Time for you to take a bath."

X stiffened. He'd taken three baths in his lifetime, and none of them had been a pleasant experience. But the book said that bathing was important. According to it, he wasn't bathed enough. He could try to enjoy it. Maybe splash some. No, Circe hated being splashed and slapped him for doing so.

She took off his armor and put it in a machine to be cleaned. Then she looked him over. "What the hell are you doing? You're covered in bruises."

"Mmnnn," X murmured. It would be nice if he could talk too. At least to tell her not to hurt him.

"You'd better stop whatever little game you've got going in your head. If you get too hurt, I'm the one who will be blamed. And I do not want to get in trouble for your stupidity. Now, in you go and no fussing this time."

He tolerated the bath. It wasn't so bad when he wasn't concentrating on how much he hated it. When that was done, she dressed him in a little pink gown with red ribbons. A girly gown, she called it, but that didn't make much sense to X. Then she fed him and put him back on his blankets to sleep.

When he woke up, he was back in his blue armor and Circe wasn't in the room. He picked up the green blanket and crawled with it to the armchair. All right, he could stand on his own, but he wanted to try walking with assistance first. X pulled himself up, found his balance point, then started moving around the chair. He tripped a lot. But every moment of standing up and carefully moving his feet strengthened him. He managed to make it all the way around the chair once.

And then Circe came back. There was a reploid man with her now. "You could just ignore the brat," he said.

She snatched him up. "I'm getting paid a good deal of money to take care of him. I'll feed the little devil and then we can get back to your place."

X looked at the man and realized that he had one silver eye and one black eye. Something about that struck him as strange. He looked at Circe's face a moment and realized that while he thought her eyes were amber, one of them was actually golden. Those eyes are wicked things, he thought. He didn't know why; he just knew they were.

She fed him, but her attention was entirely on the man with her. They left as soon as X was done. And that was just fine with him. He went back to walking practice.

When Circe got back several hours later, she found him asleep in the armchair. The green blanket was half on, half off as X gripped it in his hand. She rubbed her eyes. "How did you... damn, I don't care. Suit yourself." She went to sleep on the couch.

X spent the next couple of days standing on his own, walking around the armchair, climbing in and out of the armchair, and taking a few tentative steps while holding onto the low shelf. When he managed to walk all the way down the shelf without tripping and stand up by himself for five minutes, he decided it was time to walk on his own.

He had observed Circe walking and imitated her. A step, then two. Three more steps and he was off his blanket pile. Ten steps and he reached the armchair. Turn around, without falling. Walk across the room to the low bookshelf.

Smiling, he looked at the books, now within reach. He heard Circe grumble over her other job and turned his head to look at her. No, not quite time for books yet. X walked over into her area.

Seeing a movement of a small person wearing blue armor, Circe turned in time to see X take five steps towards her. She had assumed all his napping was normal. "What the hell? You're not supposed to be walking yet! Not for another three months at least."

X smiled proudly at her and managed to make a "Heh" sound. He was three weeks old.

"Dammit, now I have to put all those baby safe devices up." She groaned and put her head in her hands. "Get back to your blankets."

Before he did that, X walked over to the bookshelf for a book to read.

* * *

May XX51

Sometime between three and six months, a reploid child would begin to babble. So the books said. X had pushed himself, but it wasn't until he was three months old that he could start to make complicated sounds. Walking had been a matter of exercise and practice. But talking...

X read a child's primer book. The book said this: 'The cat sat on the mat.'

He studied the phrase, then said, "Du suffra ka..." then stopped. Speaking was frustrating. And this primer book was boring. Maybe other kids would like the bright watercolor illustrations, but he wanted something good to read.

After putting the primer back in place, X studied the books within reach. However, he had read every single one of them, from the child care books to the child's dictionary. He knew a lot of words and basic concepts. But to speak them... ugh.

X pulled out his favorite book of the bunch. It was a fiction about a little boy and his parents through a single year. There were troubles, but the family loved each other. The parents treated the boy well and taught him proper morals. In a way, he hated the story in that it made him feel like there was a gaping hole in his life. But he loved the way the book showed him what was supposed to be in that hole.

He took it back to his blankets, but didn't read it immediately. He clasped the book to his chest as a talisman. How he would love to become the boy, Robin, and have a nice loving family, instead of a perpetually busy and ticked off caretaker in Circe. Why was he here?

* * *

X had decided on something bold. He walked up to Circe's desk, reached up to the surface, then pulled himself on tippy-toes to peer at her.

Her reaction was as expected. She slapped his fingers. "Go away, brat."

"Ko wha, ba," X mimicked. No, that wasn't right.

"I mean it," Circe growled. "I don't have the time or inclination to play with you."

That was a long one. X concentrated on the sounds rather than the meanings. "Mea, haj da lii." No, no, none of that was right.

"Are you becoming a bad boy?"

"Har beca boio..."

Circe grabbed him swiftly, causing him to squawk in surprise. She shook him hard. "Stop pestering me! Now get back to your corner or I'll send you there bleeding."

"Anwi," X whined. He wished he could tell her that he meant nothing in copying her. He just wanted to learn how to talk.

She dropped him. "Get lost."

He went back to his blankets and cried while holding his head. It was all he could do right now, cry and babble. Why did she have to punish him for trying to learn things?

After a while of no sympathy, X opened the book about Robin and began reading it again.

* * *

His reading and Circe's work was interrupted by the door opening. X looked up to see a strange man who looked absolutely colorless. Even the gold buttons on his shirt had lost their yellowness to become a sickly gray. Circe responded to his entrance, not with irritation, but with a gracious curtsy. "Ikari, what are you doing here?"

"Inspecting. How goes your work?"

For a moment, she fumed as usual. After calming down, she said, "Terrible. I knew you gave me a devil child, but you didn't tell me you gave me a genius devil child."

"Genius?" He looked down at X, who was lying on his stomach with the book open. "He lacks toys, so books become his playthings."

Sort of, X thought.

"No, he is reading those books. He was walking way too soon and he can lock himself in the bathroom. And get himself out. And he's toilet trained himself somehow. I had nothing to do with that, and I'm kinda grateful, but I have no idea how he managed to figure it all out on his own."

The books. X wanted more control over his life, so he read up on toilet training. Circe had almost been nice to him the day he demonstrated that he could manage that on his own. "Book," he said.

"See?" Circe demanded with a pointing finger. "He's not supposed to be talking intelligibly yet."

Hah, that was one right word! X listened for more words.

Ikari looked thoughtful for a moment, then turned back to the child. "X, come here."

He got up and walked over to the master. He'd never met this person before. Was he nice or mean? X tried to figure out how a greeting sounded. "Sah ne." Sigh, that was wrong.

Ikari knelt down and took X's chin with his gloved hand. He looked the child right in the eyes.

A peculiar feeling came over X as he looked into Ikari's black eyes. This man is a villain, a voice in his head said. This man is the reason why I'm here alone, without a family, with only mean Circe, without love. This man will make me suffer even more.

Swept up in a spell of fierce anger, X slapped Ikari in the face as hard as he could manage. "Bad!" He knew that word from Circe.

He didn't even blink. But Circe snapped her fingers and cast a spell that sparkled darkly. It threw X into the brick wall. He cried at the pain.

Then she rushed over to Ikari. "I'm so sorry, Master Domino," she said in a trembling voice. "He's never been violent before."

"It's nothing," he said in an even calm voice. "He barely has the strength to make a mark. But he does have the right intelligence."

"What should I do?"

"Keep watching him, and discipline him sharply if he gets out of line." Then Ikari left.

Circe went after him. "Must I?"

X crawled back to his blankets and gripped his favorite book again. Magic is powerful, he thought. He needed to learn magic, somehow.

He opened up his right hand, the one he'd slapped Ikari with. Was that just his imagination? Or had his hand really lost its color when he touched the master's skin?

* * *

Circe always said there were monsters out in the hall. X often heard strange noises out there, so initially he was inclined to believe her. But through his books, he learned that might not be true. There were monsters in the world, but often it was things misunderstood that were labeled monsters, especially to a kid like himself. One day when she was out, he left the room.

He came to a long stone hall. There was his door and twelve other doors on one side. On the other was a single doorway with two doors in it. Way down at the ends, one turned toward the single door side, while the other went both ways. Some parts of the walls were polished smooth and painted white, while others were rough and pitted with holes. There were posters on the walls, but not much else for decoration.

"What are you doing out here?" Ikari asked, in a calm manner.

X squealed and spun around. He hadn't seen the master there when he came out. For a moment, he thought of going back in his room. Then he tried to figure out how to say he was curious with his limited vocabulary.

"Book," he settled on.

"You're looking for new books?"

He nodded. Close enough.

"That would be over here." He went over to the single door side and pushed on the two doors. They swung open with the lightest pressure. "This is the library."

X instantly fell in love with the room. It was huge and full of books. They were all neatly organized on gigantic shelves, all in nice rows. And every shelf, he was quick to note, was equipped with a ladder. It was quite possible that he could reach every shelf even as small as he was. Climbing the black ladders would be a challenge, but X could manage.

"Hawa," he said, expressing his awe.

"I know it would be tough for someone as small as you to get books back and forth, so you may use one of the shelving mechaniloids." Ikari pointed out a white robot with a basket on its back and long silver arms folded up into a tight formation. "Come."

The white robot came instantly.

"You call it."

X looked at the robot. "Come," he copied.

The robot didn't come to him.

"No. Pay attention. Come."

There was something else Ikari was doing. Something X could feel in the back of his mind. He concentrated on that feeling. "Come."

The robot came to his side.

The master nodded in approval. "Now fetch three books and bring them back to me."

Three books. X nodded, then walked toward the stacks. But there were so many... he checked a poster which showed a diagram of the library. This was the main area. There were twenty various small rooms coming off it. Two small rooms were labeled 'Magic Books', as well as a section of the main room. He decided on going to the main section.

The wall shelf the magic books were on was twelve feet high and fifty feet long. Just looking up at them all made him feel dizzy. He focused on the two shelves within easy reach. On the left end of the wall were a number of children's magic texts. They might be easy, but then they would be easy to learn from. He picked three in a set. On the top of the spine, they had a mark that matched the children's dictionary in his room. The cart robot obediently followed him back to Ikari.

"Mine," X said.

"They are not your books," Ikari corrected. "You will be borrowing them from the library. This room has a copy of every book in the Tower, save for one. And you are never to even look at that book, if for some reason you manage to find it. Is that clear?"

"Yes," X replied.

He knelt down and looked the set over. "Intriguing. Take them to the dragon at the desk to check out."

He went over to the dragon's desk, but it was well over his head. X pointed up. "Book."

The cart robot answered by taking the three books and placing them on the desk.

The dragon lounging on the desk looked down at him. "Who are you?"

"X," he replied.

"I am allowing him three books and one chip per visit," Ikari said.

Chip? X looked up at the master, wondering what a chip was.

"He'd better not chew on the books," the dragon replied.

"He has no teeth yet."

"Fine. But I want no damage whatsoever to these books." The librarian pointed his scaly tail right at X, who nodded. With that, the books were checked out.

"The cart will be going with him until he's big enough to take the books on his own," Ikari added.

X was happy as he led the cart back to his room. But he was tapped on the shoulder before going in. "Tupcha?"

"You have passed this test. Be aware of your surroundings; I have others to administer to you." Then he vanished.

He paused. That was a test? It didn't seem like a test, at least not as defined by his dictionary. All well. He went inside to read up on magic.

* * *

The set of magic books taught the bare basics of magic with only a handful of spells. The first spell X cast was a fire spell. Unfortunately, he had been in the gown instead of his armor, so he managed to burn his left foot doing so. And then Circe cast a strong water spell at him to put out the fire. And then she scolded him harshly while attending to his burnt foot. With his blankets soaked and Circe in a bad mood, he had to get into the brown armchair and keep quiet for a few hours. He would have to be more careful.

But magic gave him a way to get revenge on his mean caretaker.

The books taught him telekinesis. He practiced with various objects around the room. Items that he could reasonably carry, like books, were easy to lift from a distance. Items that were heavy were tough and used a lot of aura, but he managed to lift the armchair a few inches off the ground. And items that were small, that required fine manipulation to handle, those were tough with telekinesis too. He tried moving single pages of the books, and more often than not moved five or more.

One day, when Circe was grumbling over paperwork as usual, X looked over at her desk. She had a glass of red juice on the edge. He focused his attention on the glass of red juice, then telekinetically tipped it onto her lap.

She shrieked at that, making X laugh. Which got him punished, but all well. Next time he had revenge in mind, he would have to be quieter.

* * *

When X came to return the books, he met with Ikari Domino again. "I have something else to show you today."

Curious, X followed the master into another room. This room also had many shelves. But not filled with books. This room was filled with little plastic cases with number-letter codes on the side. X gazed over them, but didn't know how they were important.

"This is the data chip storage room," Ikari explained. He paused at one shelf and searched out a case. Once he found it, he pulled it out to show X. "Do you know what this is?"

X's eyes lit up. It was the cover to his favorite book! "Robin's Family," he said. He had pestered Circe until she said the title.

"Right. Go find your allotted books and check this out with them."

X sought out one magic book and two books of basic science. After checking the books and the data chip out, he went back to his room to fetch the matching book. He set the book by the case, but then wasn't sure what to do with it.

Ikari brought down a mechanical device. X didn't know what it was, just that he had used it for telekinesis practice. Watching closely, he saw Ikari open the case and pull out a small gray piece of plastic. He put that in the device and turned it on.

The device promptly read the first line of the book 'Robin's Family'. Just to make sure, X opened up the book and looked. "Same!"

"That's right. Many of the books in the library have a matching chip so you can listen and read to books."

Circe muttered some curse words. "Am I gonna have to listen to that junk he's reading all the time?"

"Unless you wish to coach him in speaking, you will."

She waved her hand. "Fine. I don't think Master Wily would approve."

"He already has."


	40. Seeds of Fear and Hatred

July XX51

Ikari Tower

Circe had brought in earphones so she didn't have to listen to X and his book chips. Which didn't bother him at all. He would check out a book and its matching chip, then read and speak along. With this assistance, he picked up on language much faster.

He made friends with the librarian dragon. The dragon was mostly interested in acquiring food, keeping other monsters out of the library, and keeping the rules intact. But he recognized X as a good patron, so didn't mind helping him learn to converse. The dragon even taught him new languages: his native speech and the speech of elves. " _Elves can be tricky little beasts_ ," the dragon explained _. "It's best to know what they're saying."_

X also fiddled with the chip player until he could turn it into a radio player. With that, he learned of music and of the world outside Ikari Tower. He learned of a never ending winter caused by a powerful Ice Dragon. He learned of cities protected by enormous walls and potent spells. But more importantly, he learned how to properly use his new language skills.

But the radio made him think and wonder more about why he was here. Eventually, he had to ask. "Circe?"

"It's bath time now," she said sternly. "Not talk time."

He ignored that. "Why am I here?"

"That's a dumb question."

X shook his head. "No, it's practical. Although it could be taken in a philosophical manner."

Circe stared at him. "Where are you picking up words like 'philosophical'?

"The radio and the books.

"Ugh. I knew it was a bad idea."

"But why am I here? Do you know?"

"Of course I know why you're here. One of your parents sold their soul to the devil for your unnatural intelligence."

"You're just fabricating insults."

"And you're proving my point."

They were quiet for a while. "Why am I here? What happened to my parents?"

Circe grabbed him by the throat. "You don't deserve to know that. Now shut up or you'll learn how it is to be beaten up underwater."

X kept silent, for the time being. But why was he here?

* * *

The particular book X had that day didn't have a chip with it, so he was reading it silently. Circe was on the phone, just background noise to his mind. That is, until she jerked him away from his book. "Come on. Master Domino is going to watch you the rest of the day."

"You could just ask me nicely," X responded.

She hit the back of his head. "Shut up and follow."

She led him past the library and down one of the other halls. This led to a staircase, which presented a problem. So far, X had only climbed into chairs and onto step stools. He hadn't dared the library ladders yet. Circe did not help him, so he had to figure out stair climbing on his own, and quick.

It was much easier to crawl up, as he felt more balanced that way. Circe kept telling him to hurry up and he did the best he could. But the staircase was long and winding. His caretaker had no problem, but X was tired out by the top.

Ikari was there to meet them. He had a staff today, which was topped with a black winged angel over a glass globe. He hit the ground with it, forcing X's attention on him. "I hear you've been asking questions, X."

"Only a few. And I do..."

The staff interrupted him again. "Your parents are not coming for you. You have an important role to fulfill here. Now, since you are almost six months old, we have something to discuss."

"All right."

"Take hold of my belt and follow close. Do not speak a word until I let you. Is that clear?"

"Yes,"

Ikari hit him hard with the staff, enough to knock him over. "Not a word. Get up."

X got to his feet and just nodded this time. He took hold of Ikari's belt and followed. Circe went back downstairs.

As tired as he was from the stair climb, they had further to go. Down a short hall, then into a large room. There were lots of tables and chairs. Cafeteria, he thought. There were some reploids in here. Dangerous reploids. From the look of their armor and the readiness of their weapons, they were probably built for battle and little else. X knew Ikari was a villain, but he drew closer to stay away from the violent ones.

"Is that the enemy child?" one asked, calling the others' attention on X.

"Of course he is; doesn't he look it?" another replied.

"Are you gonna torture him, cut off his fingers, and send them and the tapes to his family?"

X shivered at the thought while the others laughed.

"Just kill him right now," one warrior said, just before firing a plasma gun at him.

The child froze, watching the bright and dangerous shot fly towards him. Ikari was much quicker. Snapping his staff back, he deflected the plasma, sending it back to the shooter at a much faster pace. Being armored, the shooter was merely stunned for a second.

"No one is to harm him without permission from the master," Ikari warned in a dangerous tone. "And if we do want him tortured, you're not the one to do it."

X wished he was back in his room. Circe was mean to him, yes, but he knew how she punished and how he could avoid that punishment. Trying not to cry, X kept following.

Their goal was a dark room. X couldn't tell how big it was because it was mostly dark. A single bright spotlight in the center gave out light, but only to a small circle. Ikari put X in the spotlight. In the darkness, something hissed.

"You might want to stay in that light," Ikari said. "Now we talk."

X sat with his arms around his knees, to look small and obedient. "Yes sir."

"Good answer. Now, I have given you a place to live, someone to take care of you, food and water, and access to the library. I gave you the means to learn things and survive. It seems that you must give me something in return."

He could only think of his favorite book, and hoped it wasn't that. "I don't have anything."

In response, Ikari tapped X's head with the staff. "You have your mind. Tell me, what is a child your age like, according to the books you have read?"

"A child my age? Well, he'd be able to walk some, within the past month or so. He would be able to speak simple words, maybe a phrase or two. He would need changing, and protection from simple dangers. And he would have a loving family."

Ikari frowned and began pacing around. "The last was not necessary. Now, what are you able to do?"

"Me?" X loosened up some. "I can walk pretty well, I guess, although those stairs were difficult. I can communicate well."

"You know the word communicate."

"Yeah. I can work some machines, and I know how a toilet works. And I can cast magic." He paused. "I'm not really normal."

"That's right. You're not normal. You are far more intelligent than you need to be. Possibly within a month or two, I can tell Circe that she doesn't have to be with you all the time. She would like that."

"I guess." He'd like that too. "I still have some things to learn."

"You'd best learn them well, for I am granting you a great responsibility."

"Responsibility?"

He stopped in front of X. "Yes. In a few months, a child will be coming here. Circe despises you and refuses to spend more time than absolutely necessary with you. Therefore, the care of this child will fall to you. And this child will be perfectly normal. He will have an average sort of intelligence, strong in some areas, weak in others. You can take care of yourself, but this child would die if left alone."

"I'll take care of him? But I'm barely a toddler myself, and that's stretching..."

"Are you really a toddler?" Ikari asked sharply. "Would a toddler be able to handle this conversation?"

"Um... no."

"It's a stretch to call you a child, X Light. Your body may be immature, but your mind is completely mature. You will have the responsibility for the care of the normal infant. And if you fail, I will punish you as an adult. Possibly even kill you if the need is there."

X tensed again, trying to make himself look small and childlike. "I, I'll take care of him. But don't you have responsibility to care for us?"

"You remember those reploids in the cafeteria?"

X nodded, fearful.

"I could hand you over to them. They would love to kill you. Or better yet, torture you for entertainment. The Master of this clan would love to be done with you already. But I have a use for you. Therefore, you will cooperate with my requests. Or else, they will be given responsibility for you. You should thank me for the trouble."

X kept still, until Ikari glared at him hard enough. "Th-thank you, Master Domino."

* * *

December XX51  
Ikari Tower

X was reading an algebra textbook today. Every magic spell was dependent on a formula. One could just cast a memorized formula, but to become a true master of magic, one had to know how to adapt formulas to situations. And that meant learning algebra. Not that X found it difficult. What was difficult was trying to ignore the fact that his right arm was in a cast.

He had teeth coming in and that made him irritable. He kept wanting to chew on things. Books were most definitely not things to chew on, so X kept looking. Yesterday, he had found some bagels in the library. Those worked for chewing.

Except that the Dark Hunters had brought in those bagels and considered his taking some stealing. X knew that, but also knew that they wouldn't give them. While he tried to claim the two bagels he had taken, Ballade cast a wind spell that knocked him into a bookshelf. And knocked over a bunch of large books from the top shelf. Between hitting the shelf and having a fifteen pound book drop on him, his bone had fractured.

At first, they just laughed at him. Then they realized that his cries were too loud and long to be a normal problem. Quint had put a healing spell on his bones, then tied his arm up securely so it wouldn't move. The four Hunters then harassed him into promising not to tell who broke his arm. It seemed that Ikari's threat of punishment held to all the Wily clan.

They did let him keep the two bagels. That was... relatively nice, X thought. Or maybe they figured out what he did: knowing he was safe from major damage, X could now just fuss until they gave him something to chew on. And the teething ring that Circe had given him today was doing well for easing his aching gums and new teeth.

He heard crying.

X glanced up from his book, but it was still a little ways off. He shut the algebra textbook and sat up. Moments later, Circe walked in with another child. His birth armor was bright red and he had long blond hair. That had to be so difficult to crawl with, X thought.

"You take care of yourself today," Circe said, tossing over a bottle of milk formula. She sat in the brown armchair and turned her attention to the infant. "And you shut up already. Sheesh. Here I thought getting a normal baby would be a relief."

Quietly, X took his bottle and went back to reading. That required telekinesis, but his manipulation had grown finer, so he could turn single pages. He finished his bottle just before Circe snatched it away. She examined it.

"You'd better not be gnawing holes in these, or I'll force you onto regular food sooner."

"I'm working on that," X said.

"Right, you demonic bookworm. Here's your charge." She set the baby on the blankets. "His name is Zero and he's four and a half months old. I guess I have to stay and supervise until your arm heals up and you get used to things. Then I'll have an office free of little brats. You got that?"

"Yes, Circe. I'll be glad to see you go."

She smirked. "At least we can agree on that. So don't make this a bloody waste of my time." She went back over to her desk for more of her other hated job.

"Ta gai?" Zero called out. He looked and sounded nervous, fearful of this new environment.

"And the first rule you need to learn is keep quiet," Circe said before she threw over a hard plastic ball.

That wouldn't hurt bad, but it would definitely startle. X caught it with magic, then sent it right back to Circe. It hit her in the head. She glared at him with her ugliest expression.

X glared back. "I'm taking care of him. No throwing things at him."

"Then you tell him to shut up."

Zero sniffled, probably not used to be talked to in that tone of voice.

"Shh, it'll be okay," X told him. "I'm X, and I'll protect you. Here, I can read you the book I have."

As he thought, Circe grabbed her earphones as soon as he mentioned reading aloud.

Zero looked him over. "Gwibo."

"Yeah, I know I'm not much older than you are. The adults here are mean. But I'll be nice." Then he started reading his algebra aloud. He was currently on working with fractions.

A textbook wasn't normally a storytelling book, X thought. But if Ikari was right, Zero was a normal baby and would only know that someone was talking to him. He wouldn't be able to tell the difference between dividing fractions and adorable kittens. Hopefully just hearing a friendly voice would calm him down.

When X finished up the fraction chapter, he checked. Zero had fallen asleep.

X felt a sense of being cheated. What was it like when one could be put to sleep just by listening to math? What was it like to be perfectly normal? He was in Ikari Tower because he was unnaturally smart, and he hated that. And what did Master Domino have in mind for him?

What did he have in mind for Zero? X looked closer at his ward. He was a perfectly normal baby. Probably didn't even know how to walk yet or sit up balanced. If X was here because he was too smart, then why was Zero here?

* * *

January XX51

X was faced with a problem. He had everything absolutely necessary for taking care of another child. Their food was dropped off at the library desk every morning, he knew how to operate the bath, and he knew how to care for Zero and himself. But 'absolute need' was not enough. They only had four blankets between then, so X often wound up sleeping in the couch or chair without one. And Zero was growing bored and frustrated.

This was obvious in how he crawled around the room, as if in search of something. X thought he was in search of his father. Zero had managed to cry out, "Daddy," a few days ago. With that, he went into a fearful panic, which soon drew attention and retaliation from Quint. X did the best he could to calm him down and keep him from panicking again. But he grew rather jealous in that Zero could miss his father.

Something good did come out of this time of new responsibilities and stresses. X began to have dreams of his mother. It was a welcome relief, and often he would wish he could remain asleep to keep dreaming of a safe and loving time with her. At first, he noted the odd similarities between his dream mother and the mother in his favorite book. He soon discredited that as just coincidental. Besides, if he had been with his mother, she probably would be like Robin's mother.

It was on waking from one of these dreams that X decided he needed to find some toys, or something to occupy Zero with. X could keep himself occupied with books. Zero needed something simpler. But what?

He waited for Zero to take a nap, and then left the room to explore. He didn't think the library had any toys. He opened the door to the left of his room.

One of the Dark Hunters was in there. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I, uh, got lost..."

"Your room's the next one over, dimwit. Now leave me be."

X shut the door and noticed a sign. 'Office-Punk'. He checked other signs and found other offices. Probably not safe to open. Then there was an unlabeled door. He opened it and was greeted by a steel set of jaws that was wider than he was tall.

Startled, X cast a light spell at the monster. It gnashed its jaws noisily, but ran down the hall. In response, there was other jaw gnashing and strange squeals. More of the odd jaw monsters.

"Will you bunch shut up?"

X heard Quint's voice. He decided to go in the jaw monster's hall and shut the door. Bad choice. The jaw monster rushed at him, intending on crushing him with its teeth. Dodging to the right, X managed to avoid the rush and cause the monster to crash into the door.

Quint pounded on the door in response. "You'd better can it in there, or we'll can you Reaverbots. Now scram." He cast a stronger light spell through the door.

The jaw Reaverbots all scrambled away from the bright light, squealing in rusty tones.

"Dumb animals," Quint muttered before he walked off.

X waited for a minute, then left the hall. The Tower was more dangerous than he thought. Hoping he'd find some good items, X searched with more caution. His luck turned around when he found a door labeled 'Supplies'. Inside were mostly janitorial items. Industrial chemicals, cleaning robots, towels, blankets, cushions, and a large gray box labeled 'office supplies'.

No toys right off, but there were more blankets. And the cushions might be useful as pillows. With magic, he picked out two more blankets (they were much larger than their current blankets) and a bag with five cushions. Then he took those back to his room.

Zero was still sleeping, so X went back to the supply closet. But on the way, he ran into Enker. "What are you doing out here, devil child?"

"Um, th-there's some monsters..."

"Bet someone's teasing the Reavers again," Enker muttered. "Get back to your room or the library. They won't go there."

"R-right. Thank you." He went into the library, but then left through a side door to return to the supply closet. There had to be something. X squeezed himself around the largest cleaning robot to search the back.

Now he found what could be toys. Several brightly colored plastic balls were in a large shoe box. He looked them over, eventually finding a sticker on the box that said, 'Wave Magic Power Indicators'. X put the lid on the box. He was about to leave when something else caught his eye.

That had to be a toy. There was no way a small broom like that couldn't be one. It was about two feet tall, a rather gaudy green with bright orange bristles. A pair of small copper stars were attached to a ribbon on the top end. What was that doing in a place like this?

Never mind why it was here, X thought. He took it and the box of balls and went back to their room. Zero woke up not long after he returned and started back on his search of the room.

X put the broom on the floor, then opened the box and tipped it over. "Here, these are for you."

"Da?" Zero watched the balls roll away, then grabbed hold of one orange ball. He looked it over, tried to put it in his mouth (it was too big for that), then tossed it away. It bounced away with sharp 'pock' sounds, which he seemed to like.

In fact, he ignored the broom completely until he tossed one of the balls at X. X grabbed the broom and hit the ball with it. Zero laughed at that, then came over to ask for the broom.

"Here you go," X said. "Just don't knock any balls into the hallway."

X went back to reading while Zero played with the broom and balls. After fifteen minutes, Zero walked over with his unsteady steps. "X!"

He looked up. "Hey, you said my name, Zero. Where's your broom?"

Zero held his hands out, then clapped them together. The broom reappeared in his hands. "Vivo."

"Wow. It must be a magic broom of some sort." He went to touch it.

Zero grabbed it close. "Cubai."

He smiled. "Okay, it's yours. Just take good care of it."

* * *

February XX52

X had a pair of crackers and a handful of raisins. The spellbook called for a piece of bread and fresh fruit. But it gave the formula, so X replaced some numbers and hoped the substitution would work. Concentrating on the crackers and raisins, he ran through his altered formula and cast the spell.

The items began to glow. The forms of all the foods merged into one glowing glob. Once the magic settled, the glow vanished from a piece of raisin bread.

X picked it up. "No cake, but better than crackers and raisins." He took a bite and was pleased to discover that he managed to add a cinnamon flavor to his creation. Transformation cooking was never as good as actual cooking or baking, but when one lacked cooking equipment...

The rest of the raisin bread was snatched from him. "What's this? Looks like something not for you."

X looked back to see that Enker had snuck up on him. "It's just crackers and raisins."

The Dark Hunter ate the rest of it. "You're right, nothing special. Come on, I've got a surprise for you."

"Surprise?" he asked suspiciously.

He grabbed a book from the shelf. "Yeah, it's your stinking birthday, so we've got something for you."

"Hey, that's my book." In particular, Robin's Family.

"This thing? It's a sappy soft-hearted book. Nothing special." Enker summoned a flame dangerously close to the book.

"No, don't," X said. He nearly shouted it, but Zero was fast asleep.

To X's relief, he put the flame out. "Fine. Come along, if you want your surprise." He took off with X's favorite book.

X followed, mostly to get his book back.

* * *

When Zero woke up, X was back in the room, crying. He had one large bruise across his face and was hiding various others. He hadn't bothered with curative spells for these injuries yet.

Zero crawled over and sat by X. He patted his friend's cheek. "X?"

"They burned all my books," X sobbed out.

"Bad adults."

X sniffed, but smiled. "Yeah. Bad adults." He rubbed his eyes and winced as he touched the bruise. After casting a spell to heal it faster, he added, "We have to leave."

"Go?

"We can't completely leave yet. But we can move out of this room." He glanced around. "I know a better place to hide. The adults won't be able to find us. Come on; grab some pillows and we'll go."

Zero got up and grabbed two pillows. X folded up the blankets, piled them on top of each other, then brought that along by telekinesis. Then he led the way into the library.

"Books," Zero said, with awe in his voice. He still couldn't read, but liked to have X read to him.

"Yeah, but we have to be quiet from now on. The librarian doesn't like a lot of noise. Hurry."

They went to a hidden set of rooms near one of the north corners. Mostly forgotten, it lay past a narrow gap in the shelves that X and Zero could go through easily. Any adult would have trouble slipping by, especially in some of the bulky armors the Wily clan wore. There were a few things being stored here in boxes, but not much. The set consisted of three rooms: a large closet, a small closet, and (for some strange reason) a full bathroom.

"It's smaller than our former room, but it'll suit us," X explained. "And we can do whatever we want here, because the adults can't get in."

"Good," Zero replied.

"Let's go get our other things." They made three more trips to get the other pillows, Zero's toys, X's radio, and various other items they needed.

X then took care of his other bruises and cuts. Being beat up for his birthday was awful. But not as nasty a surprise as being forced to watch them burn his books. The dictionary, the child care books, and worst of all, Robin's Family, they all were turned to ashes.

Now that he had calmed down some in moving them both, X thought of what Ikari had told him about the library. Every book had a copy here, or so he said. After telling Zero to stay put, X went into the library and searched the fiction section.

It wasn't there. He checked the chip room, knowing it had to be there. He had checked out that chip several times. But the case was missing.

His favorite book, the one that reminded him of his mother, was completely gone.

* * *

March XX54

X was having nightmares. Not screaming aloud and waking up, like Zero had at times. No, X would wake up in a cold sweat, feeling a dread of something he couldn't name. He tried to use his knack for intuitive guesses, but kept coming up with frightening suggestions. Something bad was going to happen.

And for the past three months, all his nightmares had a common theme. Two angels: one who cried and sometimes was dying, and another who resided on Ikari's staff. They would come together and... nasty things would happen.

He tried to keep that out of mind while he looked over the newborn reploid that Zero had discovered. Part of him balked at the idea of taking care of two younger children, especially when the new one was unannounced. But he knew he couldn't leave the infant alone. The Tower was deadly.

On the other hand, Zero was fascinated by Equinox, who they had found again. He touched the baby's nose and watched his unfocused eyes. "Were we really like this once?"

"Yes," X said. "I still remember being like that, and seeing you as an infant.

"Weird. I can't remember that.

Lucky, X thought sarcastically. But he kept that feeling to himself. "You to have to be careful of him. He can't do anything right now, except cry and sleep."

"He can't even use the toilet?"

"No. You have to clean him up."

Zero made a face. "Yuck."

"Hold it," Quint said, after appearing without warning. "What are you two doing kidnapping my nephew again?"

"What are you doing in here?" Zero asked, in a mix of fear and anger. "You're not supposed to be in our room."

"Shut up," he answered, casting a webbing spell over both X and Zero. "Now, about Equinox."

X took a deep breath, then looked the Hunter in the eye. "Sir Quint, we found him just left by himself in the library."

This time, there was a crackling sound as Ballade teleported in. "What? You left him alone again?" He was so mad that his silver eye almost shot out sparks.

"Calm down," Quint said. X heard a tone of worry and fear. "It was just..."

"That's my son! I thought we agreed to be careful with him."

"The master will decide what is to be done."

Ballade didn't respond, but his body was tense. He looked like he could have killed his brother right there and then.

"We rescued him from the monster one time," X said, hoping for some leverage. "I was just curious about how he was doing."

"I'm taking care of him," Ballade retorted, taking Equinox out of the basket. "And who put him in here? I already said it's a dumb thing."

"Not me," Quint said firmly. "Look, leave him with Circe or one of the other girls. We have important business to attend to with these two devils."

His brother grumbled, but teleported to take Equinox elsewhere.

"What are you gonna do with us?" Zero asked.

"Why don't you come along and find out?"

Quint teleported them to a strange room that X had never seen before. Punk and Enker were already there. While there was a mass of shimmering runes on the walls, there was only one control panel. Although it had the feel of a control room, there wasn't a single screen or image caster anywhere. There was a small cage on one wall, which was right next to a large sealed door.

And on the sealed door were two angels. One with black wings and a scythe; except for the globe, it matched the one on Ikari's staff. The other was like a child with small wings and a halo. The child angel was surrounded by knives and blood. Biting his lip, X tried to keep from showing the dread he was feeling.

"All right, let's begin this party," Enker said.

"Hang on; we have to wait on Ballade."

He appeared seconds later. His silver eye had calmed down, but still glowed in a spooky manner. Glaring at his brothers, he dropped into a chair.

Punk got up and took the webbing around Zero. "First of all, you get to play jailbird."

"I didn't do anything," Zero insisted as he was shoved into the small cage. The webbing released both of them when the door locked. "Let me out of here."

"When it's time," Enker said.

Quint looked down at X. "Now you aren't going to do anything, or I'll have Punk hit Zero with that electro-rod."

"Don't hurt him," X said. "What do you want with me?"

"Don't do anything for them," Zero insisted.

Punk made the rod spark. "Watch your stinking mouth, brat."

"Your task is quite simple, X. Behind this sealed door is a special mirror. I want you to look it over and solve the riddle within its reflection."

"Solve a riddle? I can do that. Are there any books I can check with first?"

"No, not for this mirror. Just go on in and look at it."

"Okay. I'll do that." He looked at the two angels from his nightmares. "It's, um, not an evil mirror, is it?"

"You'll find out. Open the seal."

"Right," Ballade said. He moved the controls and allowed X into the sealed room.

* * *

December 25, XX60  
Lakitu Islands

Blues nudged his nephew. "X?"

"Huh, what?"

"You stopped talking."

Rock squeezed his shoulder. "That was when you saw the Paranoid Mirror, right?"

X nodded. He was quiet for a moment longer, then said, "Those images still haunt me. I don't fear them quite as much, but I still don't like thinking of them."

"So they just had Zero outside the sealed door?"

"Sound could go through the door. After the first hour or so, I forgot everything but what the mirror was showing, but Zero could hear me the whole time. So could the Hunters, if they stayed the whole time. Zero passed out, but he was weakened from lack of food, water, and sleep. I was hardly aware of anything for three days after."

"And then you were scared of everything," Blues added.

"Yeah, everything."

* * *

December 29, XX60

Despite every subtle attempt, X didn't learn what he needed for a few days. Not that he was always trying. Perhaps it was the story of his early days, or perhaps it was because he'd been stuck in a high security fort, but his father and uncle were willing to indulge X in anything he wanted. Like today, they had gone diving for pearls (found none) and fishing for sharks (found plenty).

Blues showed him how to prepare an edible shark for dinner. "It's going to take a bit for it to fry up right," he said. "Why don't you go find Rock?"

"Where is he? I haven't seen him in a while."

He shrugged. "I dunno; you're the one with the third eye."

X grinned. "I'm not a finder. Guess I'll just look with my regular eyes." He got up and ran down the beach.

It was a small island, so it didn't take long to locate Rock. He was looking out to another island. For the distant look in his eyes, he was thinking on some memory. Probably not a fond one. Recalling what the one officer told him, X snuck up and tackled his father with a hug.

Startled, he tensed up for a moment. "Oh, it's you." Then he smiled and grabbed X, quickly flipping him to the ground. "You think you can sneak attack me?"

"I just did," X said with a laugh. Then he tried to break out, but Rock had him firmly pinned. "Hey, let me go."

"I won't," he replied teasingly. "You'll have to figure it out yourself."

They play wrestled for a few minutes. Rock kept putting X in the same hold, and X kept getting away faster. That is, until Rock changed the hold slightly and X had to find a completely different way of escaping. After that, X delivered his message. "Supper's getting cooked."

"All right. We can take up practice later."

"Practice?"

"Of course," Rock said, grabbing him to mess up his hair. "You're going to be affected by my reputation whether you like it or not, so I have to make sure you can live up to it."

"I see." Then he broke out of his father's arms to be rewarded with a laugh. "So what're you doing over here?"

"Observing. I've been to these islands before."

"You have?"

Rock nodded and pointed over to the island he'd been looking at. "Lakitu is known for volcanic activity. This island is pretty quiet, but that island erupts fire every day. Just look at that smoke. A lava flow must have made contact with Grove C."

X looked over at the plume of black smoke. He squinted. "That doesn't seem like vegetation smoke."

"A long time ago, Albert Wily put a weapons factory there, to be run off the volcanic energy. This was back when I was a robot master. It was the first mission I ever used magic on."

"Really?" He considered the smoke. "Is it dangerous if that smoke comes over here? Or is something going to explode?"

"We should be all right. I cleared the factory and all dangerous materials were removed. If anything's come in since... that's why I'm keeping an eye on it. That old factory was making some potent weapons."

"So you learned magic here. Does Blues know?"

Rock shrugged. "Not sure. I might have told him." He touched his black magic mark, the rune of lightning. "This place is why my aura aligns to lightning. Dad had given me some power stones based on his research into golems. But we hadn't really tested my magic power, so it was weak. My spells barely did anything. However, the power stones gave me the lightning spell Bolt. While it was weakened, robots and robot masters were made entirely of electronics and metal back then. Bolt gave me a huge advantage, and so I made good use of it."

"Reploids are still weak to lightning spells."

"But not like back then. Here, hold up your hand."

X did so. Rock cast a weak Bolt spell: it was green and thin. Although it made a loud zap, it was hardly impressive for magic. X rubbed his palm. "That stung a bit."

"That could kill an old style robot," Rock said.

"Hey dad?"

"What?"

"Why can't I go to Monsteropolis to study with Zero?"

"We never said that."

"But I know you won't let me."

"It has nothing to do with Zero," Rock insisted. "He's a great kid. I love talking to him and I'd like to see him around more often. But his parents..."

"What about Roll and Forte?" X nudged.

"Forte did something horrible to me decades ago. It wound up awakening my soul, but even dad said it was much too harsh. I can understand he was only following orders at that point and had little comprehension of what he was doing. And I was about ready to forgive him."

X looked over at him. "You were?"

"He saved your life. He helped you to me, and he dealt with Adanya when I was incapable of doing so. On that, I was willing to consider him a friend. It seemed incredible at the time. My worst enemy for as long as I could think, and maybe even before that, and I was considering him a friend? It didn't even bother me that he was Zero's father. I'll admit to you; don't go telling others, but I admired him for his efforts in returning to Zero, and even consenting to live with me to be close to him. And then Roll had to be involved."

"What's wrong with that? They love each other."

"It has to do with how they met that drives me and Blues away from them. Even after all these years, it's still a betrayal."

Rock had paused again, caught up in his anger. It felt fierce and sharp, like a blade of fire. X quietly waited this time.

When he cooled off some, he continued. "Forte stole her as a hostage against Blues and I. But right from the start, that rescue mission was cursed. We got told they were in Balner Falda when they were in Balna Forest. Over a thousand miles between the two and we were searching that stinking city for two weeks. Then Blues captured a message robot who told us she was at Fortress Eagle. Wrong information again. We took that fortress down, just us and a handful of friends. It was rough and we lost a few people. And she wasn't there. So we took down more of Wily's forts. We'd intended on doing so."

"But this time you had a valid reason."

"We had a passionate reason. We cared about our sister; she's a wonderful person except maybe in this. After we spent all that effort, time, money, and even a few lives, she just showed up on her own six months later. Perfectly fine, healthy, nothing wrong with her. We thought she was just very lucky, not that he had seduced her. Even back then, that rescue seemed like a complete failure and waste of time."

"Because her coming back seemed like a fluke."

"Yeah. Now we know it was a complete waste of time and a blight on the memories of those who helped us. I could tell you all the names of the ones who died taking Fortress Eagle and others... because of them." He paused and touched his ear. "Blues is calling for us."

X stood up, but Rock remained seated for a moment. "Sorry I brought it up."

He finally got up. "No need. I'm sorry it ruined your friendship."

X took his father's hand as they headed back. "Not really. Me and Zero have telepathic links like you and Blues do."

"Ah. Then that will help you in volumes, believe me. I still feel bad about it. I hope you can understand."

He bit his lip, then decided to admit it. "I do, but I wish I couldn't. I wish I was a normal kid so I could claim it wasn't fair and stuff. But I'm not and I can see your point. Sometimes I really hate being so smart."

"I know. Sometimes I hate being a hero.

"Really?"

Rock nodded. "I have had my heart broken in so many ways, usually when I least suspect it. I've seen brave men who deserve the title of hero more than myself get killed, but never recognized. I've attracted so many curses and ill luck, and enemies, and responsibilities. When I see someone's life get better because of something I've done, I'm happy, but it seems that my rewards are rare."

"But you still do heroic things."

"Because it's the right thing to do." Rock squeezed his hand. "Besides, the rare rewards that I do get are far more precious than any worldly treasures."

X smiled back at him.


	41. The Question of Vampires

April 4, XX61  
Fort Cerise

Zero and X were talking telepathically about the adulthood classes they were taking. A lot of it was stuff X had read about before, but some information was completely new.

But Zero had other things on his mind too. 'Hey X, what do you know about reploid vampires?'

'Vampires?'

'Yeah, a lot of kids at school are talking about them. Afraid of them. They can apparently teleport wherever there is a mirror, and they can't be driven away by fire.'

X scratched his head. 'Now that's weird. Most undead are weak to fire.'

'Not these vampires.'

'I haven't heard anything. Of course, it may be under classified information here, so I might not be able to find out.'

'Can you use your cards for some hint? Like how to keep them away?'

'I can try. Hang on.' He went to his desk, but paused before taking a Tarot deck. He had two sets: a normal deck and an enchanted deck. Deciding on the enchanted deck, he started shuffling.

The results he drew were interesting. X spent a moment looking the cards over. Zero reminded him, 'So?'

'The reploid vampires are weak to sunlight and water. They are ruled by the White Ring... of course, all undead are ruled by White. But they have a strength, not a weakness, in the element of fire.'

'Do you think it has anything to do with the Fire Dragon?' Zero had a touch of worry in his thoughts.

'That could be. But this last card...'

'What? I can't see what you see.'

'If I concentrate, you can.' X picked up the mystery card and looked at it.

There was a moment of quiet before Zero saw, 'Star Guise? Star is in your Tarot deck?'

'This is an enchanted deck. The pictures can change to match the meaning. The card he's on is labeled The Seeker. Which means that he might be the best source of information on reploid vampires, although he is seeking that information himself.'

'So you need to go talk to him.'

'Yeah. I wonder if dad would let me travel to Kykital. Hang on.' He picked up the Seeker card and went to Rock's room.

But the trip to Kykital immediately left his mind. Rock looked pale and ill. His whole body was trembling as he gripped his chest. From the sound of his gasping, his lungs were having a hard time working. He didn't even notice X was there for a moment.

X grabbed Rock's hand. "Dad, what's wrong?"

Rock shook his head. "It will pass... like the others..."

"What's wrong with you?"

"Don't worry. It's..."

'I wouldn't believe him,' Zero's thoughts came to X. 'Go call the healer.'

'Right.' X let go. "Hang on; don't move. I'm calling the healer."

He went to the IC. Patrol policy didn't allow him to use his com unit to call the healing wing. But the access line was right on the screen of all computers in the base. He tapped it. As he waited for the connection to be made, he heard Rock collapse on the floor.

"Dad!" X almost ran to him.

But Zero's thoughts came strong. 'Get the healer to him first. Try to stay calm.'

He tried to keep from panicking, but it was hard. 'Thank you.'

"This is Dr. Allen,"

"My dad's sick and he's fallen unconscious," X blurted out. "Come down here."

Allen asked a few questions, then appeared in the apartment. X wanted to help, but was so distraught that the doctor told him to call one of the officers. The officer met with X in the hospital area, where they had taken Rock as soon as it was safe to teleport him. Although the officer was supposed to console him, X found the most support coming from Zero. Only their thoughts were connected, but they were so strong that it felt like Zero was really there.

* * *

April XX61  
outside Fort Cerise

When the railroad boomed after the long winter, millions of miles of tracks were laid where the caravan trade routes had been. It was possible to get to ten different cities from the station at Fort Cerise, and from there, almost every major city-state in the world. It was cheapest and safest to take the train now when traveling between cities.

Lulani showed up while X and Rock were waiting on a train. He carried a hefty book with him, bound in leather. "Good afternoon. Mind if I join you?"

"We're headed to Kykital," X said.

"Do you mind if I join you? We have things to discuss about your magic training."

They agreed to let him come, and he went to buy a ticket.

"What has happened?" he asked as he came back over. "It's not often that I see Rock in civilian clothing."

Indeed, Rock was in jeans and a buttoned up jacket. "I'm no longer part of the Patrol," he explained, sounding tired. "My doctor and enough officers signed orders that I was to step down for health reasons."

"He nearly had a complete systems failure," X said. "Too much stress and work led to bad health."

"At least they're not complaining that I was doing too little. Now they'll realize just how much I was doing for them."

X patted his hand, reminding him to stay calm.

"So I'm outside the Patrol for an indefinite time. Until my health and mental state are cleared, supposedly. We'll see how long that stands."

"Dad," X reprimanded him gently.

"Why do you choose Kykital?"

X answered, "We have friends there. And I asked the Tarot about reploid vampires, and was told to seek a friend in Kykital. Star Guise."

"You know anything about these corrupted ones? I've sent survey teams, but none have returned."

"The vampires..." Lulani thought. "There have been times I have felt a strange presence. One of shadow and fire."

"That's the vampires. Oddly enough, their strength is fire."

"A riddle, it seems. However, I know less than you do, probably."

"And I probably know less than Star does. At least, I hope so. What is it about my training that we need to talk about that requires a train trip to explain?"

"The lesson might take the train trip. This is for you to study." Lulani handed over the leather bound book. "It belongs in the hands of a proper White ring user anyhow."

There was no title on the cover, only an ornate crest. X opened up to the title page. "'Door to the World of the Dead.'?"

"That is, so I'm told, the best general guide to necromancy around. I can teach you what that book teaches about Death and the souls that experience it. Beyond that, I am no White wizard. I cannot train you further."

"This is the end of my studies?"

"No. This is the beginning of your true study, for which you will have to seek out a master of your ring."

"The only one left is Master Wily," Rock pointed out.

"That book teaches how to contact the dead. And it will tell you that at one point, all White wizards must train with a ghost. This training is around six to ten years."

"So this will allow me to find my next teacher."

"Right. I am going to narrow your search. There is a place known as Firelily Jungle. Within that jungle is a temple. It's been a necropolis for centuries. I had every intent on going there myself and completing my White ring training years ago."

"What happened?"

"Wily threatened the woman who created me. Didn't matter what I chose; he killed her anyways. I lived in hiding for a good twenty years before I felt safe."

"Oh. Sorry to ask about it."

He shook his head. "It is no problem. I have spoken to her soul and made certain that she moved on. I've grown past it." Lulani tapped his alicorn. "There are many things you must grow past as well, or else you will never master the force of aura."

"But I... haven't had anyone die like that."

"It's not always Death that holds one back," Rock said.

"When you start speaking to ghosts," Lulani suggested, "listen carefully. You may learn things about yourself."

* * *

April XX61  
Kykital

Lulani left them at Kykital, where they met with the Guises. Seven year old Angel ran up and hugged X, then Rock. "Hello!"

"Hi Angel," X said. "How are things?"

"Great!" She smiled sweetly. She had her mother's form, with gauzy fins and disguised gills, but had her father's colors of black and silver. "Will you come swimming with us? We can go to the Palace."

"Maybe."

They shared lunch. Sonya managed to convince her daughter away for an errand so they could talk to Star alone. "We'll do what we can to help with your health," he told Rock.

He nodded. "Thanks. Actually, we have something to discuss with you."

"What's that?"

"Vampires. Specifically, the reploids."

"Oh." His expression turned serious.

X pulled out his Tarot cards. The Seeker still had Star's picture. "I asked the Tarot about the new vampires, and they gave me this. You must know something we don't."

"What do you know?"

"Their strengths are different. Not earth and nature, but fire and shadow. Their weaknesses are water and solar. They can travel by mirror, unless one paints a guard crest over said mirror."

"And they live in Shadow Palace," Rock added. "I've lost a number of investigators trying to find out more."

"I see. Well..." Star scratched his neck. He looked nervous. "I'd better just get this off my chest. Sonya and I were attacked by these vampires.

"You were?"

"Angel's okay. She's fine; we managed to keep her hidden. But there's a risk for the two of us. You came at a bad time. No, on the other hand, if we can find something, it might..."

Rock leaned forward and took Star's hand. He was shaking. "Calm down. We need to solve this problem rationally."

"Right, right." He sighed. "The time is forty days."

"Forty days to what?" X asked.

"No, in three days, it will be forty days since we were attacked. And that will be a dangerous time. I'll try to explain." Star snapped his fingers and summoned his computer. He brought up files of what information he did have. "My studies show that there are theoretically three variations in this breed. The lowest is the blood thrall."

"Thralls are hardly even vampires," X said. "They're individuals who have been stripped of their will by addiction to vampire's blood."

"But you're forgetting; the thrall's master can send them to attack anyone, even in the middle of the day. And they're usually granted special drain spells. They might be little more than automatons, but they are best classified with vampires over zombies. For the other two variants, they follow a classic serf-lord pattern."

X nodded. "So there is one Master, who brings in new vampires, and the Servants, who are absolutely loyal to their Master."

"Right. If a Servant attacks you, you're likely to die right then. If you live, you might be sick for a week or so, but you'll be fine. The two of us were attacked by the Master."

"Are you sure of that?"

"I'm positive. Here, look." He brought up crest deconstructions he had done. "This is what I traced off my wound the initial night. And these two are from surviving humans, one bitten by a Servant, the other by the Master. My wound closely matches the Master's victim."

X looked over the information. Rock did too, but he didn't quite understand it all. "What does forty days have to do with the Master?"

"This man," he pointed to the Servant's victim, "needed a blood transfusion, was anemic for a week, but then was fine. This man," he pointed to the Master's victim, "got horribly ill. He lived in the hospital for his last forty days. For that is what happens to humans bitten by the master: they die after exactly forty days."

"Are they revived as undead?" X asked.

"No. And I'm not sure that would be possible. Pardon the gore, but it seems their organs were liquidized on that last day."

X made a sickened grimace.

"What about reploid victims?" Rock asked.

"A week of rest, and they seem fine. Forty days pass, and most are still fine. I'm not sure how many of the Master's reploid victims there are; I would guess a hundred or more. And out of that one hundred, at least two became vampires on the fortieth day."

"It's a slim chance, but still there."

"We'll do everything we can to help," Rock said. "There must be some way of making that chance lower."

Star rubbed his forehead. "I've looked for signs in the two, but I can't come up with anything. I know it's a slim chance, but Angel... this could ruin our family."

"I have a book of necromancy," X offered. "That might give us some clues. And it looks like you still have some analyzing left to do; I can help with that."

"Thank you. Anything would be a help at this point."

* * *

X scanned through 'Door to the World of the Dead' for information on unusual vampires. He found a lot on restless souls and undead. But the change in magic meant all protective and banishing spells had to be reworked, as many depended on a purifying fire.

Sonya was in human form, doing housework around X's study area. At one point, she tapped him on the shoulder. "How're you doing?"

"I'm getting somewhere." He looked over his notes. "I need Star's help for some of this. He can check new spell balances better than I can."

"You should take a break. You've been working hard."

X shook his head. "I'm fine; this needs to be solved."

"We've got time."

"But you've only got one day."

"I think Star is being paranoid. Don't let him infect you with it. Chances are in our favor, right?"

"Yes, but it could..."

She put her finger on his lips. "You really are like your father." She smiled mischievously. "Don't tell the others and I'll take you out for a bit of ice cream."

Bashful, X tried to hide his face by looking at the book. "You don't have to do that."

"But I want to. And I know you secretly want to as well."

"But I..."

She leaned down and looked him in the face. "You're much too young to be serious."

This wasn't any different from how he usually was. But it was tempting to give up on that. "I guess."

"Can't you show some enthusiasm for fun?"

He shut the book and put it on the table. "Sometimes."

"Relax already." She tickled X and made him laugh.

"Okay, I get your point."

On the little trip for ice cream, Sonya did everything she could think of to keep X from thinking about the vampire problem. She did it kindly, and after a while, he didn't mind being distracted. It almost made him feel normal.

On the way back (they couldn't stay long, or they'd attract attention to the secretive indulgence), Sonya took his hand. "You're more than welcome to stay here for your induction and your dad's health. You've got, what, five months until then?"

X nodded. "Yeah, the ceremony to becoming an adult is in September."

"Then I'll make sure that for your last five months of childhood, you get spoiled rotten."

X laughed easily at this. "Sonya! Dad's gonna hate you for that."

"Why shouldn't I spoil you?" She gave him a quick hug. "I can be like your mother for that time."

"You don't want to be like my mother."

"Not her; of course not. Like a real mom to you. Won't you like that?"

Absolutely, he would love that. But it was a desire he usually didn't share with others, not even Zero. "I know why I can't have a mom. I never wanted to force dad into something he didn't want."

She shook her head. "You're thinking too seriously again. Besides, I'm already married. You can go back to being serious in October, or better yet, never. For now, you should have fun. It's not like you need any more schooling or such."

"I can't be like a normal kid. That just won't happen."

"That's exactly why you need someone like an indulgent mom around. You should stop thinking of that and just be who you are."

"I am being who I am. Someone much too smart for their own good." For a moment, his train of thought got distracted. There was a small bookstore on the way back. He had seen it going to the ice cream parlor, and glanced at it again to see if it would be worth checking out after the forty day deadline had passed.

"That's a nice antique bookstore," Sonya said. "He has some interesting things, just so long as you watch the prices. You want to go look inside?

"Maybe later. I have to get back to..."

"You're on break, X."

"Well," he should work on those spells... but an antique bookstore was too tempting. "Maybe for a bit."

One of the first things she did was shoo him away from the magic books. Which was a shame, because a shop like this might have unusual or obscure textbooks. Maybe even a White ring text that Lulani hadn't seen. Then again, it had been a while since he picked up a fiction book to read just for fun. Sonya found an old edition of a mystery author she liked and was talking about that when...

X spotted a brown book with ornate yellow lettering. His power core fluttered for a moment on recognizing it. Although he had thought he'd never see it again, here it was. He pulled it out and there it was. A familiar picture.

"What'd you find?" Sonya asked, peering at his treasure.

"'Robin's Family'," he replied. "I haven't seen this book since my first birthday."

"Since your first birthday?"

"I used to read it all the time. Like days on end where I read nothing else." He looked for a price tag. "Eighty-five dollars. Nah, it's worth about a hundred times that. I loved this book."

"I can get it for you, if you want."

The more practical side of X's mind took over. "I don't know. I mean, it's eighty-five for this small book. And it's probably in a larger than average font size. Maybe it's the age, or a limited print run driving the price up." He opened the book to the middle. Instantly, he knew where he was in the story and what would happen on the next page. It reminded him of being in the Tower, alone, and trying to forget about that in getting wrapped up in this story.

"If it's worth a hundred times that to you, then it's nothing."

Something about her generosity made him feel an impulse to start sobbing. He kept from that, but did smile warmly to her. "You really are going to spoil me, aren't you?"

Sonya tousled his hair. "If you let me, I will."

* * *

Angel had gone to sleep. Rock and X stayed up with Star and Sonya. Throughout the day, Star had been teaching X to use a computerized aura reader. He had himself and Sonya hooked up to his computer for constant analysis. She thought they were being paranoid, but put the reader on as well. X handled the machine and watched their auras, so he was first to notice. But things happened quickly that night. If he had looked away at the wrong moment, he would have missed it entirely.

Sonya had gone to the kitchen, returning with a pitcher of water. After taking a long drink, she said, "I don't feel that good all of a sudden."

"Do you have that amulet I made for you?" Star was referring to a charm he had made in hopes of further opposing the change.

"Yes, right here." She patted her shirt pocket.

It started at the neck, presumably at the bite wound. X noticed runes of the aura change. Then the corruption spread through their bodies. In a moment of confusion, X watched as the change shut down their energy cores, yet they remained in active operation. This was potent magic.

"Good, we don't want to take any chances," Star said. The only energy in his system now was the corrupted vampire aura.

"You're being paranoid," Sonya said, with a touch of annoyance that usually wasn't there.

"I can't see how you're oblivious to the danger."

"You're the oblivious one. You won't even admit that your cat friend Neko is dead."

"He is not. He's just out with the Patrol somewhere."

"That's not Neko; that's some stranger you picked up in the woods."

The corruption got to their central cores. There was a brief moment of struggle when both looked sickly. Could they resist at this point? Whether they could or not, the vampire aura took over both of them. It started jumbling up their auras, shifting the magic to make itself comfortable. At least, X guess that's what it was doing. He couldn't identify the old Sonya and Star in the two reploids before him.

"If I didn't go picking up strangers in the wilderness, I wouldn't have met you," Star said.

"That's true," Sonya admitted, and then kissed him passionately.

Rock shifted in his chair uncomfortably, as if deciding between mediating or leaving the room. X started up Kyrie. According to the necromancy text, vampires in their first day might be reverted by Kyrie instead of killed. If he was wrong about them being undead, it wouldn't hurt them. But he doubted he was wrong.

They responded to the spell with screams. It was a definite strike, as black scars appeared where Kyrie made contact with exposed flesh. But it did not kill or revert them.

Realizing what was going on, Rock jumped out of his chair and moved to a position to defend X. He cast A-shadow in time to catch Shadow Bolt from Star. Sonya had spent a moment summoning her trident. Then she attempted to use Shadow Strike to hit Rock. A-shadow neutralized that as well.

Since it was only possible to have one Anti spell running, Star cast Firebolt. Rock managed to deflect that, only to leave himself open for a thrust from Sonya. X finished his spell, Water Blast, and caught both vampires in it.

Star grunted, but did not seem badly hurt. On the other hand, the black Kyrie scars vanished from Sonya's body. That's why Lulani never trusts the Tarot fully, X realized in fear. It was good for generalities and hints, but anything specific might be misinterpreted. Water healed Sonya because she was still a mermaid with a water affinity.

Seeing that X's water spell didn't work, Rock made a change to his Blue Wave so it used the cold energy instead of pure water. He hated changing spells, especially midcast, because it slowed him down. But sometimes it was necessary. The cold Blue Wave didn't do much to either of them. What was with these vampires?

Sonya pulled her trident into a defensive position, then looked back at Star. He nodded. The pair ran from the room.

X got up to pursue them, but Rock stopped him. "Go to Angel. Make sure she's okay."

"But..."

"Protect her first; she's defenseless."

X nodded, then ran down the stairs. Rock chased the vampires to the entry hall. There, they were speaking by telepathy. So, water was of no use. But solar was a definite. He picked Sunbeam, placed both of them in range, and then cast it quick.

Finally, a result he wanted to see. Major damage, as evidenced by magic burns on their skin and clothes. Based on his experience with other undead, this was still going to be a long hard fight. But at least he knew a weakness.

Star responded by setting himself on fire. It puzzled Rock for a moment, until he noticed the other two major components of the spell: Heal and Null. Null was necessary to use Heal on an undead being. As he thought, the fire began erasing all the damage he had caused so far. Okay, based on this, the battle was going to last all night.

Rock started up Sunbeam again. Before he got far with it, pain arced through his power system. His power core tried to pick up speed to make up for power loss, but only half that power made it to his other systems. Not again. This was not the time for him to have another systems failure. It was hard enough fighting the vampires, but to have to fight his own body as well...

When the healing fire was finished, Star launched himself at Rock. He easily tackled him into the wall. Rock looked at Star's eyes and saw them glowing a bloody red. "Master Omega has no argument with you, but certain others would appreciate your demise."

Rock responded with Sunbeam right in Star's face. And suffered for it in an increase of inner pain. "You won't take me down easily."

Star leapt away from Rock, growling like a wild beast. He put the healing fire over his face. Then he vanished, presumably for easier prey.

Where was Sonya? Rock felt afraid for X and Angel, but also felt a seizure coming on. Doing the only thing he could do now, he set off an alarm over his com unit. This would alert the Kykital City Guard that there was a Field Patrol officer in severe trouble. Then he concentrated on trying to calm his rebellious power core.

* * *

Downstairs, there was a long hall that led down into the sea. There, an airlock separated the old upper home from the new underwater wing. Walking through water was slow, even if one ran. X cast a space-bending spell that allowed him to walk normally, and ran to Angel's room.

She was already awake and swimming about. "What's going on?" she asked, darting over to him. "Something strange woke me up."

"I'm sorry, Angel. But your parents…"

"Hush now, X," Sonya said. She appeared in her mermaid form right behind him and her voice was very sweet. "Angel, baby, it's okay. We're going to be moving."

"Mommy…" she stopped. Then she swam backwards. "Why do you feel like the hate medusas?"

"It's an illusion."

"They're vampires," X blurted out.

Sonya put her hand over his mouth. "I said hush," she spoke soothingly. But her aura felt aggressive.

Angel paused, then swam into the open sea.

She would know where safety lay. X decided to take a risk and cast a lightning spell. All reploids, presumably vampires too, were weak to this element. The residual energy from casting it in salt water might hurt him, but the initial spell would not.

But before he got far into casting it, Sonya picked him up. "Little child, I will have to talk to you then."

"I'm not a little child."

Stroking his hair, she was somewhere between soothing and deceptive. "But you want to be. You want to be a sweet, normal little boy who has a warm and loving mother, don't you?"

He trembled. Some of her power touched him, but he couldn't identify what she was doing. His own spell was not completed and vanished from his mind.

"I could be that mother. I could give you a gift you cannot imagine. I can make you normal, forever. You may have been cheated of your childhood, but I can give it back for eternity. You deserve it, little hero."

X's mind was much too mature to believe in that. However, she had discovered the secret pain of his heart. Having been long denied full control, his heart cried out and slew his reason. He wrapped his arms around her neck. "Sonya!"

"Call me mother. We shall meet Master Omega and I will be your mother."

"X!" Rock called out as he exited the airlock, although his voice sounded strained.

The vampire Sonya smiled to him, keeping X close. "Hold it; we don't want to hurt him."

"Give him back." His voice faltered.

"He wants to come with me. Right?"

X saw how his father had weaknesses too, ones that made him lose courage now. And from the labored breaths he was taking, Rock really wasn't capable of fighting then. X clung to Sonya. "I'm going with her. She'll make me normal."

"Don't do this. They'll strip you of your soul, and probably of your mind too if she's right."

"I'll give him a perfect life you could never manage," Sonya challenged. "What can you give him? More loneliness? You're a terrible man."

Her power touched him too. His whole body seemed to grow weaker. "I'm…"

"Your soul has been destroyed from the inside and your body cannot last much longer. You could never truly love him. You need to just stop."

"Stop?"

"Leave him with me. That's what you want, right little one?"

Without thinking, he said, "Go away."

She waved her free hand at Rock. "Take care of yourself."

There was a moment where both were so entranced, that Rock could have killed himself and X would only watch.

Then a merman as big as an ox tackled Sonya. He yanked X out of her arms and slammed her into the wall, breaking her concentration and hold over them. She shrieked and bit him. Struggling for a moment, he grew slack as she began draining him of life. Another merman, not nearly as big as the first, attacked her then. Star appeared briefly, grabbed hold of Sonya, and vanished with her.

In a flash of white fins, a mermaid darted in to take care of the large merman. The second warrior swam over to X. "Are you two okay?"

"I can't believe I almost did that," Rock said, stunned and ashamed of his failure.

X burst into tears.

* * *

He was supposed to be relaxing. Instead, he wound up fighting vampires. Rock walked around the hotel room and tried massaging his forehead. But that didn't work. Seemed like he could never take an honest break without thinking of terrible things, or even doing them. What part of him wasn't weary? It was almost too much.

Rock sat on one of the beds. X was sleeping there. He was reminded of years ago, watching X sleep as he clasped a notebook to his chest. Only now it was an old brown book in his arms. Sonya had bought it for him. At first, it had struck Rock as a rather expensive gift. Then he learned it was that book, X's first favorite. He had read it through three times now. Or was it four?

He touched his cheeks, not waking him. They were wet with tears. Just a week ago, Sonya had just been another person from X's past, an acquaintance he hadn't seen in years. Today, she was vitally important and she was gone. The monster that replaced her had given him an impossible dream, but one that spoke to some deep pain that X had yet to move on from.

For a moment, Rock thought of telepathing Blues again. Blues was trying to tell him to relax. But how could he relax with the thought of reploid vampires in his mind? Or while trying to deal with X's grief? Or while trying to deal with his own problems, which he was trying so hard to keep from X. But X noticed a lot, even as distressed as he was.

He touched the link crystal behind his ear. X shivered in his sleep and mumbled. His hand went towards the companion crystal. Rock touched X's hand, but felt a pang of grief as well. He knew, but it didn't stop him from wishing the other belonged to his father, who would know how to comfort them.

After some thought, he went to the bathroom, put up a noise shield, and made a long distance call. This could be a really bad idea, he thought. But he had to try.

He nearly hung up immediately, as Forte answered. "Rock? Good afternoon."

Rock bit his tongue on something negative. "I… have some bad news. Star Guise and Sonya have both been turned into vampires."

"The Guises? That's terrible. What about Angel?"

"She's with the merpeople. She's healthy, but distraught over her parents. X too. He recently became closer to Sonya."

"I can't believe that happened to them. They've been through so much, and they only recently declared Star to be healing from his curse."

"And there wasn't a damn thing I could do to help," Rock blurted out. "I sent in teams to gather information and they either returned mad or not at all. I know they've been around, but I know nothing about them. There's at least five and I can't do a thing about it right now because of the restriction."

"Do you want me to get your sister?" Forte asked.

"Am I delusional or are you worried about me?" He touched his eyes, although he didn't need that to know he was in tears.

"Wait a moment."

On the other end of the line, Forte left the den. Roll was reading one of her romance novels. "Honey? Rock's on the line."

"What?" she asked in minor irritation. Then she looked up and saw how serious he was. "What? Is something wrong with him?"

"The Guises have been turned into vampires. And I think he's on the verge of a nervous breakdown. If he hasn't already crossed that line."

Roll dropped her book and went to talk. "Rock, what's the matter? You look terrible."

"Absolutely nothing is going right," Rock said, not looking at the image phone's camera. "The doctor said it was from overwork, stress, and depression, which is all psychological, but that was absolutely not in my head."

"What are you talking about?"

He hesitated, then sighed. "I… my power core has been unstable. If X hadn't been there, paying attention, insisting… I had a near fatal system failure. But there's nowhere for me to go."

"You could come back home."

* * *

Rock's health was poor, so the kids were supposed to keep quiet. But they couldn't contain their excitement that X and Rock had come back. And yet for a few days, X wouldn't talk to anyone. But two weeks after they returned, X joined the others for a game of Risk.

It was fun, except that X was beating them all by a mile. "Where'd you learn to play like that?" Zero asked, trying to figure out how to keep Europe.

X chuckled. "I learned from one of the top strategists in the Patrol."

"He's gonna beat you both," Solstice said. She was making the yellow team have a picnic.

"Can we just play Scrabble?" Equinox asked.

"He'll beat us at that too," Zero said.

Crossing his arms over his chest, X gave them a look of mock disdain. "I see how it is. I'm barely home one month and you're already complaining."

They all laughed. "No, it's great to have you back here," Zero said. "I was kinda worried, because I'm joining the Patrol and wasn't sure when I'd get to see you."

"You're joining as soon as you can, then?" X asked.

"Since I can, and I want to, might as well."

"Me too," Equinox said.

"And me," Solstice added. "And I'll beat both my brothers at it."

"No you won't, Sol," Equinox teased, play punching her.

She replied by blocking and bluffing a punch to his face. "Gotcha."

Pretending to be greatly hurt, Equinox fell over. "Aaah, she's gonna kill me!"

"We'll have to make you some armor," Zero said. "But I'm sure you'll do well."

"Mom won't like that." Then Solstice went back to playing with the yellow artillery pieces.

"Don't tell our mom," Zero whispered, "but dad's been taking us out to the shooting range for gun safety training. And Equinox is a killer shot with any gun they put in his hands."

He grinned. "Yeah. Although I do like spellbows. But I can't train for that until I join the Patrol."

"You keep a lot from Aunt Roll?"

"Mostly the gun training," Equinox said.

"She doesn't really want us battle training. She'll probably fuss about your dad training you too."

"It's just how she is, I guess."

"It is great having you and your dad back," Zero said. "But what does that mean for the Fire Dragon?"

"He's still around," X answered. "It just means that my vision was wrong. Doesn't surprise me, really. I made it in a stressful time."

"That's one time we're all glad you were wrong," Equinox said.


	42. Leaving Childhood

August 28, XX61

Light residence

Having gotten his chores done early, Zero looked for X and found him in his old room. He was working on an image computer. "What're you doing?" he asked.

"Hmm?" He looked over to Zero, then smiled. "Oh, hi. I'm making arrangements for my white ring apprenticeship. It's a bit tough, since I don't have many records to go by. But I do have all sorts of survivalist information from Blues, so I should be okay."

Zero went over and sat in a chair near him. "Right, cause you're going to be out of civilization most of the time. That sounds rough."

"You'll have to do that as part of your Field Patrol training," X pointed out.

Grinned, he said, "Yeah, but they'll be training me for it before it happens. You're just going into a wild jungle right off."

"Blues says I should be ready."

"He would know." Then Zero grabbed the back of X's chair. "But it's really exciting now, since we're going to be adults soon!"

"I suppose so," X said, reading over the text on the IC.

"You don't sound very excited," Zero teased him.

Shrugging, he said, "Well it's more a relief than anything for me. People never seem to know whether to treat me like a child or treat me like an adult. It'll stop that at least. Although," he smiled wistfully, then looked back to Zero, "I feel a bit weird about you growing up."

Zero tilted his head. "Me? Why do you feel weird about me growing up?"

"I'm not sure you'd understand me," X said, putting his hand to his chin. "I mean… maybe if you had to care for someone that was completely dependant on you. I did take care of you almost singlehandedly for two and a half years. So to know that you're going to be an adult in a month or so, it's kind of a warm feeling, but sad. Maybe it's how our parents are feeling now.'

"Sad? Why should you be sad about this?" Grinning again, Zero bounced forward a bit. "You should be happy for us! I'm really happy!"

X laughed at that. "I can tell. I am happy too; it's just complicated."

* * *

It was late. Zero was in his room, brushing his hair out. Only a few days away, he would be taken for induction. He felt nervous and excited. Would he get the powerful body of the soul from the other world? He hoped so.

A spot of brown light dashed through the wall. He put his brush down. "Gage? It's an odd time for you to visit."

"Shh," Gage replied. "Get your blade and come with me."

"All right." He retrieved Dusty from the top of his dresser and followed his trainer out into the hall. They stopped next to his sister's room. "What're we doing here?"

The brown elf bowed to him. "You've done exceptionally well. And, she's not quite old enough, but I believe your sister may have the same potential as you. I'd like to grant her your Dusty Blade."

"Mine?"

"This is the time for you to give up all child things, isn't it? That is a child's training weapon. I'll admit, you made much more use of it than most students ever do."

Zero thought back to the spring ceremony, then handed the weapon to Gage. "I kinda had to. But I'm glad I had it."

The elf looked it over, then sent it away. "It's glad to have had you. I think any weapon would be glad in your hands. Just watch out those cursed ones."

"I know them." He scratched his head. "I guess I have to give up my broom too."

"I don't know much about brooms, other than I don't like them." He shuddered.

"It's odd, because it's always stayed proportional to me. I wonder what will happen to it now."

"Whatever happens… Zero Light, my student, you have passed my training. I release you from the agreement, but should you keep the laws of a hero in heart, you shall prosper the rest of your days."

"Thank you."

* * *

September 1, XX61

Light residence, Monsteropolis

The day started with a celebration for Zero and X. It would have been nice if it was a big breakfast celebration, but they had to fast for this ceremony. They did enjoy having all the attention on them. Wearing their birth armors, they talked with the others and waited anxiously until…

Rock came into the room after going to answer a call on his com unit. He smiled at the two of them. "Well, my son and my nephew, you are leaving this house as children to return as adults."

They both grinned at each other.

"Have you given up all your child things?"

"I have, father," X replied.

"Almost, uncle," Zero said. He twisted his wrist to summon his broom. "I gave my Dusty Blade back to the Dust Bunny King, but I still have this. I'm giving my Starchaser to Equinox to take care of."

Equinox brightened. "Really, I get your broom?"

"Yes. Here you go." He handed it over.

"Neat!" He spun it around, causing Roll to laugh and duck back. Then he let go of it. It dropped to the floor. "Aw man."

"You'll figure it out," Zero said.

They said goodbye to their friends and most of their family. Rock, Roll, and Forte then took them over to the Cathedral. There, they and eight other kids gathered in the sanctuary for a special blessing.

The part Zero remembered of the blessing (it was a bit long, and a bit dull) was when the Cardinal was marking each of their foreheads with sacred oil. "Your life and your childhood are part of a God-given inspiration that Master Thomas Light received. Treasure your lives and honor his memory, for if it were not for Master Light, everything about you would cease to be."

After the sermon-blessing, the Cardinal came up to each child and asked the same question, just changing the name. "Zero Light, do you accept the responsibility and honor of becoming an adult?"

"Yes sir," he replied, like all the others did.

When they all accepted, the Cardinal walked to the center and turned to them all. "And now for your induction and transformation. The young ladies should go with Priestess Marie this way, and the young gentlemen should go with Priest Jerome that way. May God's love be with you."

They followed Jerome downstairs, on the west end of the building. "What's going to happen?" Zero whispered to X.

"I'm not sure," X said.

"They don't tell anybody what happens down here," Cyber Peacock whispered ahead to them. "Maybe they're doing something evil to us."

"It won't be evil," X said defensively. "My grandfather loved reploids; otherwise, he wouldn't have made us to grow up like children."

"Quiet," Jerome said. "Now is the time where I hand you off to the elves." He opened a door.

"Elves?" Cyber asked

"I should have guessed," X said to himself. "Elves are perfect for this sort of operation."

"Go on in."

There were twelve elves in the room, chatting with each other. Once the boys entered, they all chimed at once, then raced over. Three soon spun around Zero. One paused in front of him, so he held out his hand. "Ska?"

Blues' elf smiled and chimed happily. Then he waved his hand to show that Zero should follow them. They went to an adult-sized pod, designed for protecting a reploid being repaired or worked on. Zero stepped inside; there was quite a lot of extra space. If that was any indication of his adult size, it was a good sign.

Ska and the two others came in with him. Someone, Jerome probably, shut the children in. The elves began singing a lullaby. Zero had woken up a few hours ago, and yet this song put him back to sleep.

* * *

September 21, XX61

When Zero woke up, he was just over six feet tall. And he was built powerfully. Very much like the copy Master Wily had made, but not quite. Well, he wasn't the Fire Dragon, no matter how similar they looked.

The three elves opened the pod up. Ska chimed something that might have been a question.

Zero nodded. "I like this form, thank you." And his voice was better, something more fitting for a warrior.

The elves looked pleased and left for their homes. Zero stepped out of the pod; it took a moment to adjust his balance. The larger body with a different form, it would take time to get used to.

"You're taller than me," a boyish voice said.

Zero looked over and saw X's new form. He smiled. "You look and sound like a teenaged human."

He laughed. "I know, but that's what my genes say I should be. I'll live with it for a while. I can always get an engineer to fix things later if this body doesn't work out."

Back home, there was quite a greeting committee. There was a cheerful dinner, at which Zero was glad to finally be eating again. At the end of it, Equinox slipped away for a couple of minutes. He came back to his brother. "Here, your broom wants you back."

Zero took it. "That's really my old broom?" It was now jet-black all the way, sleek instead of garishly colored. The copper stars had become silver stars on silver strings. "What happened?"

"It wouldn't listen to me, so I stuck it in the corner one night. When I got up, it had become black. Then another morning, it had shot up to this height. Then just this morning, the stars changed."

Zero slipped it away as he always could, then called it back. "Strange. Although I'm glad to have it back."

"You can take it back. I don't mind."

* * *

January 13, XX62

It was a cold day in January. Roll hugged Zero. "You be careful out there," she said. "I'll be praying for your safety."

"Thanks. I should be fine."

There were a lot more goodbyes, although the only other person Zero let hug him for long was Iris. "Don't do anything too foolish and get yourself hurt," she told him.

"I won't," he promised her. "You take care of yourself."

Then Zero got on the train that he was taking to the Field Patrol Training Camp. Iris walked home with her mother. "Oh, I feel like I do when Sandy and Ash left for training. Is that silly of me, cause he's just my friend?"

"I don't think so, dear," Daisy said. "You've known him a long time and they've been close to us. I'm going to miss Zero too."

"I hope he thinks to write me as well."

* * *

January 26, XX62

X, Rock, and Lulani walked through the Temple of Firelily Jungle. It was made of stone and concrete, but managed to appear light and airy. Part of this was because the rooms were huge. The main hall alone could house twenty-four train cars, if stacked in twos in twelve neat piles. Large open windows were spread so that even interior rooms could be touched by sunlight at least for a while.

Rock observed a large lizard scale a wall and escape by a window. "This place is haunted, by spirits and wildlife."

"This was a sacred building to people who lived here thousands of years ago," X said, recalling the texts he'd studied. "It was dedicated to the goddess of the jungle."

"It still is a sacred place," Lulani corrected. "Just feel the aura settled here. I can nearly hear the old prayers."

X spotted a staircase and peered down. "There's a spell active down there. It's… a humidity stabilizer."

"You're right," Rock said. "And a stabilizer like that here can only mean something's being stored down there. Like books or something else this humidity would destroy."

He started down the stairs. "I hope it's a library. You think we'll find my mentor down there?"

"What do you think?" Lulani said.

He grinned. "I think if we find a spirit in a library, that would be my best mentor."

The stabilizer was two flights down and joined by several other spells. Including, X was glad to note, an anti-fire shield that was always near a library. And so it was a library. The books were all old. Some weren't even books, but scrolls and clay tablets.

Interestingly enough, the librarian was a small member of the dragon family. A drake, like the one at Ikari Tower. X bowed to it. " _Greetings, librarian,"_ he spoke in Draconic.

" _Greetings, strangers_ ," the drake, a female he could tell now, replied. " _Please respect the books."_

" _Does your kind take to be librarians? I learned your tongue from one like you, Tiran."_

She tilted her earflaps up. " _Tiran, my brother? Our ancestors were trained for this job, and thus we continue."_

"I apparently know her brother," X told his companions.

She stretched out. "I am Liru," she spoke in English. "It has been… well, I have never seen another intelligent life here."

"We are looking for a spirit to train him in white magic," Lulani said. "Would you know of any we can contact?"

"There's many here. They will test you and see who you should learn under. I'll take you to one."

* * *

That night, X called up everyone he could think of. He called Blues, Ash, Sandy, Zero, Roll and that group, Iris, Hyper Mayden, Angel Guise, and various friends he'd made at Fort Cerise. He had a long goodbye with his father and teacher before they left him alone. Then he went back inside, to the main hall.

There were two dozen ghosts drifting about now. One approached him. "Mage X, you may still go back. This is a difficult study, and requires much diligence."

"To do any magic well requires difficult study," X replied.

"At dawn tomorrow, you must live by the rules of the temple. You must not speak a word or make a sound. And you must perform your tasks no matter what the conditions are."

"I will do all I must."

"Then we shall train you."

* * *

February XX62

Equinox was roaming about the countryside, as he did often. At seven years old, he liked adventuring, especially with his sister Solstice. Even as a three-year-old girl, she loved walking in the woods. Their father often joined them.

But not today. Equinox was alone at adventure today. It was good to be alone sometimes, especially when the inn was full, like now. Still, what should he do? He occasionally shot at icicles with his slingshot, but didn't want to hurt any birds or squirrels that might be up there.

He thought about writing a letter to his brother. Zero had written him a week ago. He couldn't be called; he could call them, but otherwise, his main way of talking to his brother was through letters. Equinox missed his brother.

Although, he admitted only to himself, he missed X a great deal more. He wished he was X's brother rather than Zero's. X was everything one could ask of a big brother. He told great stories, he listened well, and he knew just about everything. Not only that, but X took monsters seriously. He used to be scared of everything, everyone told Equinox. But all his life, he had known X to be brave and kind.

But he couldn't write X. Well, he could, but X couldn't answer for another month. He was deep in some jungle at an ancient temple. The vows of becoming a white wizard forbade him to communicate vocally, so calling was out of the question. There was no post office near the temple, so X could only receive and send mail four times a year. Equinox often wished he could talk to X.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hooves. Horse hooves maybe. Curious, Equinox clambered through the tree towards the sound. Or maybe it was a cow. But what would a cow be doing in this grove of trees?

Finally, he spotted the creature making the noise and it was even better than a horse. It was a centaur. No, not quite. The centaur had a few mechanical devices on a waist belt. Natural centaurs were savages known to raid camps. This was a mechanical centaur. A reploid? Maybe.

Equinox jumped to the ground behind the centaur. The centaur swished his tail and turned his torso. One of his eyes seemed to be made of silver. Then he turned and said, "So, you are Equinox."

"You know me?"

"Of course. I knew your father. You look much like him."

"I don't really look that much like him."

He pawed on hoof on the icy ground. "Not Forte the traitor. I mean Ballade."

Ballade… Old memories stirred to life. Equinox wasn't sure what that meant. "I'm sorry, you must have me mistaken. My father is Forte."

"And so you think your mother is Roll Light, do you?"

Equinox nodded, although doubts started to rise.

"Have you never thought of that? Do you look anything like Forte, or Roll, or their two children? They're both first generation reploids, part of the earliest set, so if you are their child, you must look something like them both. And you don't."

The thought had crossed his mind. "It's just a coincidence. I do have hair like my father." He patted the lavender hair that was a lighter version of Forte's. That is, if Forte was his father. "Who are you anyways?"

"I am called Sagittarius." The centaur tapped his hands a certain way and caused a photo cube to appear. "And this is Ballade, one of our martyrs."

Ballade was a hominoid reploid with lavender hair and pale brown eyes, like Equinox. It was the man he kept seeing in his dreams. His real father. Equinox took the cube from Sagittarius. "Dad…"

The centaur bowed his head. "A brave warrior of our clan. Our enemies feared him. We still honor his memory."

"What happened to my dad?"

"Forte killed him."

"But he wouldn't do that…"

"You were there. What do you remember?"

"I was?" Equinox thought long and hard on this. When did he last see his real father? "We were in the woods… here, actually. And dad was in casual clothes, to blend in. I was playing with some rocks and Forte showed up. And then…" he concentrated. "I don't know. I don't know what happened after Forte appeared."

"Probably you got knocked out in the battle," Sagittarius suggested. "And you blocked what little violence you did see."

"But why?"

"Why did that traitor kill his own brother and kidnap you? Who knows? Forte is a force of destruction, that's all I know."

Equinox felt horribly betrayed. But part of his mind still believed in Forte. This reploid was a stranger and might be lying. But this picture… his memory didn't lie. "I don't believe you!" He ran off with the photo cube.

Sagittarius watched him calmly, but his silver eye shimmered. After a momentary struggle, he turned and continued on his way.

* * *

Forte came into the office, his casual clothes a bit grungy as he'd been doing plumbing repairs. "I've got the faucet in Suite 15 repaired," he reported.

"Good, thank you," Roll said. She looked over at him as he plopped in the chair, looking restless again. "What're you thinking of doing now?"

"I dunno, maybe a couple days off and taking the kids out to Balna Forest."

"Just anything to get away from civilization for a while, huh?"

Forte smiled sheepishly, running his hand through his hair. "You know me. I don't like being stuck behind walls."

"They have a vacation in two weeks. Then you can run off with them wherever you like."

"You can come too, you know."

"I might join you for a while. But I've got things to run here."

Solstice peeped into the room. "Are we going somewhere?"

Forte smiled and snatched her up; she squealed happily. "Yes, we'll go out to the woods and meet the animals. Do you want to meet the animals?"

Her eyes lit up. "Yes! Are there lemurs?" She'd learned about lemurs off a TV show today and they were currently her favorite animal.

"Not in Balna, sorry dear."

"Aw, but I want to meet lemurs."

"We could always go to Australia and seek them in the summer."

"Yeah, let's do that!"

"Oh, Australia," Roll said, her mind already wandering. "I've always wanted to see something at the Opera House."

"Well, so long as Equinox doesn't mind, it looks like we're going to Australia. Say, where is your brother?"

"He's out in the woods. But he will want to go to Australia."

"Are you so sure of that?"

"Of course he does, daddy. Who doesn't want to go to Australia?"

"Me," Kevin said as he walked by. He was one of Roll's employees now. "I got lost in the outback last time I was there. That was terrible."

"Well then, you don't have to go," Solstice said.

Kevin had walked on, but reappeared a second later. "Oh, and I saw Equinox climbing onto the roof."

"When?"

"Just now."

Forte got up. "Yeah, that's the trouble with kids born with wall cling. Here, help your mother." He put Solstice in the chair and went outside.

He wall-jumped up the house and onto the slick roof. Equinox was there, looking at something in his hand. His posture was tense. When he heard Forte land, he turned quickly and hid whatever he had. One look at his eyes said he was upset.

"What's wrong, Equinox?" Forte asked.

"You aren't my father, are you?" he asked warily.

He was bound to find that out sooner or later, Forte thought. He and Roll had hoped to be able to tell him before he figured it out on his own. Now would have to do. He could send Solstice off to help Kevin with something. "No, I'm not. Come on, let's go downstairs and talk about it."

Equinox remained tense. "What happened to my real father?"

"He died…"

"You killed him!"

Before Forte could think of how to respond, Equinox's aura flashed with a spell…

* * *

Equinox was stunned to see a hole through the forehead of his adopted father. He had activated Piercing Ray in a flash of anger and now Forte was dead. His body collapsed and slipped off the roof. A sickening thud followed.

Someone teleported right beside him. He looked a lot like Rock, except he had a red eye and a silver eye. "Good work getting rid of the traitor."

He felt horrified. "You tricked me?"

"No, we told you the truth. You know that."

"But…"

The front door opened below. Kevin came out. "What…?"

"Forte!" Roll ran out.

Quint put his hands on Equinox's shoulders. "You either come with me or go down with him."

If he went back down… if he survived that, they would know what he did. He made himself think of how Forte had killed Ballade. "They're liars. I'll go with you."

"Good choice."

Equinox looked down and saw Kevin looking up. Quint put his hand on his shoulder and teleported them both away.

* * *

March XX62

X came into Windfall. It was a small city supported by the railroad and the jungle. Most people in Windfall had only been a day's journey into the Firelily Jungle. It took him a week to get here from Oridwell.

It was night. Few stars sparkled in the sky because of the light down here. If X climbed one of the temple towers that soared above the canopy, he could see thousands. He parked his sled in the cathedral parking lot and went inside.

In the lobby, he found Sister Jaime waiting. She smiled at him. "Hello Brother X. Are you doing well?"

He nodded. He was forbidden to speak to the living. He could speak to the dead. And, thankfully, he could send his thoughts to Zero if he needed contact. He kept that limited, though, in case one of his ghostly mentors insisted he stop that as well.

As he did every time, he handed over a report of what he'd done and what visions he'd seen. In the past few decades, a movement had begun to detail what each Ring of magic was. Some, like the Nature Ring, were so common that full and accurate reports were finished within five years. White Ring, on the other hand, was so rare that there was hardly any information. The only way X could train was through ghosts.

Of course, each Ring was allowed to keep some mysteries. So far, X had run into nothing that required that.

"Thank you, as always. Wait a moment and I'll get your mail. Then we can see about warming some dinner for you."

He took the bundle. Many people wrote him. Even strangers wrote him, hoping for some visionary help. He couldn't always do that, but he helped where he could. But as he flipped through, he noticed two things. One, he had no letter from Equinox. Two, several letters felt heavy with sorrow. Not Equinox… he had learned only recently that a white wizard can feel death of someone nearby, but not someone near to one's heart.

He ate and listened to the nuns talk of their activities. When he found out this cathedral housed an order of holy sisters, he'd been worried about finding another place to hold his mail and stay at when he was in town. When they learned he was here for White Ring solitary deep in the jungle, they allowed him to stay. They knew his rules were stricter than theirs, so it didn't bother them to house a young male reploid four times a year.

Then he went to the guest room to look over the letters. He got a deeper shock as he read over them. Forte was dead. Equinox had been kidnapped by Quint in the same act. One of the inn workers had seen them, but had been unable to stop anything. The saddest of the letters, to his mind, was young Solstice. In her uneven handwriting, she talked about how her father had been holding her in his lap only minutes before he was killed, talking of visiting Australia over the summer. She was scared now that the kidnappers would come for her too.

Nearly every letter asked if he could locate Equinox before he was killed, or before something awful happened to him. That would be hard. He wasn't a finder oracle. With some effort, he could find something or someone, but he was a visionary. He was a person who saw the truth of what was happening now and in the past. And he had little control over what he saw. He just saw things.

But he could try. He took out a piece of paper and wrote down some things he needed. On top, he wrote, "My young cousin is missing; may I please have these ingredients to attempt locating him?"

He took that to the kitchen and found someone there, thankfully. The sister read the note and agreed to let him have what he asked for. Then he prepared for a vision quest to locate Equinox.

He couldn't find him.


	43. Equinox and Grimshaw

October XX62

Equinox was an eight-year-old assassin with a dozen deaths to his name. Every day, he was trained mercilessly to increase his skill at killing. He had a glittering gold eye that focused his mind solely on his given tasks.

But when he had no tasks and let his mind wander, the golden eye mentally abused him. He could not forget seeing Forte's face frozen in death, from a hole straight through his central core. He could not forget the fear of his victims, but the worst was his adopted father, who never saw his death coming. It was a living hell.

It got worse, though. Should he ever think that it was wrong, that killing was wrong or that Wily was wrong and evil, the golden eye reacted. It activated the pain center of his mind in varying degrees depending on what he was thinking. If he showed weakness and cried out from it, it increased the pain.

He missed his mother. The eye gave him a mild headache. He missed his father. The eye gave him an image of his death. He missed his sister and brother. The eye gave him a nasty throbbing migraine. He missed X…

The eye activated so many pain receptacles that he thought his body was being torn apart.

In his room (his cell, more like it), Equinox lay on his bed and gripped his hair. The pain was horrendous. It made him miss his family's comforts more, which made the pain get worse. There was no doubt in his mind. Wily hated reploids. Equinox had to love him. Worship him, even.

He closed his eyes and remembered the phrases. Wily was the only proper ruler of the world. Wily was the greatest man who'd ever lived. Equinox owed everything to Master Wily and would gladly give his life to put him in power. Even if he actually ha… no, he loved Wily.

In response to his dutiful thoughts, the eye released him from its painful grip. For now, anyways. Equinox got up, his body shaking. When he first came, he was such a mess of emotions that he was easily tricked into taking the eye and following orders without thinking twice. But once he began thinking against… thinking of Wily's true nature, which was great and terrible (that's a good meaning of terrible, he thought in excuse), those thoughts began to make him see the truth.

He left his cell… room, room, it was a great room, he did not deserve to receive the honor to live in Wily's dungeon fortress. As Equinox came out, he found Quint leaning against the other wall. The elder looked at the younger with his silver eye barely shimmering.

Equinox looked at the ground. He'd never managed to be accepted by his father's closest circle. "I was a fool," he said softly.

The golden eye threatened to make him collapse in pain again. But this time, he managed to manipulate his thoughts. I am a fool compared to Master Wily, he twisted that statement into. The golden eye calmed a little.

"Better to know you are a fool than to be one ignorantly," Quint replied spitefully.

This is hell, Equinox thought. His mind splintered with sharp pains. He tried to think his way out of the pain again, but it was hard to think at all. Shuddering, he turned back to his room, to wait things out.

Quint grabbed his arm. "I have something for you to do. Come with me." He dragged his nephew down the hall.

Equinox followed, unable to think enough to resist. Was he going to be punished? He wished for home… and was punished for it.

They went into an office of some sort. There was a table, a computer, and an armchair. Oddly enough, Enker and Punk were there too. What for? Quint shut the door behind them, then dumped Equinox into the chair.

"What'd you bring that ignoramus in here for?" Punk asked harshly. But there was something to his normal eye that seemed glad to see Equinox here.

"This had better be worth our time," Enker said impatiently. But his normal eye also was expectant, as if this were a planned spontaneous meeting.

"Can your complaints," Quint answered. He sat at the computer. "We ought to hear this recording. It's Ballade's last minutes." He glared at Equinox in the armchair. "Are you ready?"

My father? Equinox felt glad, and the eye even lessened its pain for a moment. He tried to find the words, but his throat felt stiff and dry. He nodded.

"This proves how deep Forte's treason goes." Quint started the recording.

It started with Ballade talking to Equinox. "You'd better improve yourself well," Ballade said in surprisingly warm tones. How much did he have to fight… obey the silver eye to get that in?

"Pretty stone," he heard himself say.

"Pretty is for girls, idiot." But despite the words, his voice was not insulting.

And then Forte came in. Equinox listened as the two of them spoke. He could hear the struggle against the enslaving silver eye now, as Ballade tried to give Equinox away. There was a brief fight, and then Ballade was free to speak his mind.

It seemed his father really loved him, and his death at Forte's hands had been a sacrifice of love, to keep him free and safe. But now he had willingly let them install this gold eye on him, and…

It attacked at full force again. Equinox cried at the sudden pains. He wished he could be with Roll again and call her mother. The gold eye kept attacking. Punk took his left arm and Enker took his right. Quint knelt in front of him and put his hands on Equinox's knees. But they did nothing more. Why? What were they going to do to him?

Equinox looked at Quint's face, fearful. Quint's silver eye was sparkling bright. But his normal red eye held some sympathy. They were trying to help and comfort him when the enslaving eyes forbid all loving gestures. So even these universally hated and feared warriors held some humanity.

He bit his lip and closed his eyes, trying not to make it worse on them. If only… he let the thought expire and tried to clear his mind. It was a long struggle.

When he managed to get the eye calmed down, he was exhausted. "You foolish child," Quint said. "Just like your father. We had to do that nearly every day after you were born."

"Sometimes it was you," Punk taunted.

"Don't talk like you've never been held down," Quint said with a glare.

Enker handed him a glass of water, silently.

Then Quint turned back to Equinox. "Now look here, kid. Our father is the greatest…" he clicked his tongue, then mouthed 'sadistic bastard'. His silver eye sparkled for a moment. "He is the greatest human ever born." The silver eye went back to normal. "And we will respect him, no matter what. He deserves it."

That was part of the phrases he was taught. Equinox took a drink of water, trying to collect his wits enough to remember what came next. "His power is great and terrible. All should respect him."

The other three nodded. Quint went on, "We, his loyal children, never speak of what goes on in this particular room, the Quiet Room. But now that you've been in here, you may be called to service here. Do you understand?"

He looked at the three of them. "Service?"

"This is where we take those who have become quiet."

"Sometimes one blessed with the eye will stop speaking and become far too tense," Enker said. "We are not allowed actions that are unbecoming of a warrior, thus we must use the punishment we just inflicted on you to get them to speak again."

Punishment? But they had just sat there, holding onto him while the eye attacked him. That didn't add anything to the eye's severity.

Equinox's gold eye throbbed as he thought of its severity. In response, Punk tapped his forehead. "Shame harms deeper than any physical pain."

"It does." The eye calmed again.

Quint gripped his wrists. "Our father told us not to tell him of the punishments we inflict on those who become so slothful. Therefore, you should rouse your spirit and carry on with your training. Do you understand?"

"I do."

"Do you have any appropriate questions?" His normal eye studied Equinox.

He tested some thoughts before asking, "How often must you punish the quiet?"

"There's always someone quiet to punish," Enker said.

"We have rules for the punishment," Punk added. "Always three to the one. Always lay hands upon the one. Never speak until it has passed."

"But one must wait a period before putting a new one through this severe process," Quint finished. "Now you must be trained in spirit to know your eye. We will teach you of the vast powers it contains. However, these lessons are not easy. They are often riddles."

To avoid… to keep in line with the eye's programming. "I see."

"Normally, we are never cruel to our own peers." He pulled Equinox out of the chair. "And remember, never speak of the Quiet Room outside its door."

"I won't."

Equinox left with the Dark Hunters, feeling strangely accepted. They knew each other's (pain) loyalty.

* * *

June XX63

The ghosts of Firelily Temple were used to routines. X had to follow their routines. This accounted for all the things he did: when he slept, what he ate, how he moved within the Temple. He even had to wear certain clothes to fit the rules and routines. Not that he minded. The lightweight fabric and style was suited for this environment.

A fly landed on his nose as he was meditating. X didn't allow that to bother him. As it preened its feelers and walked around, he kept at the day's lesson. Today it was a reflection on the characteristics of water.

But the scream of an elf startled the fly and broke X's meditation. He looked to the hall, then at his teacher. 'I sense one of cursed blood.'

The ghost showed annoyance with the break in routine. 'Of cursed blood, but not quite. That is a blood thrall.'

'One who has been enslaved by a vampire? Can the thrall be saved?'

'Not that one. Best to put it out of its misery.'

'May I?'

'Go on. Do not join us.'

The elf rushed into the room. " _X, thank goodness! I can't do this alone."_

'Xenophon?'

His aura flickered. " _Are you going to help?"_

"He will," the ghost teacher said. "But he is under a vow of silence while he is being taught here."

" _Oh. Look, it's Neko. I tried to save him, but,"_

Neko appeared in the doorway. His armor was a wreck, missing his helmet and most of the left arm. His hair was a mess, as if he hadn't cared about it for years. And it had been cut at some point, so now it was only a few inches below his neck. The biggest indicators that he was beyond saving were his now pink eyes and the pallor of his skin.

Being a temple student, X didn't have his armor or weapon. He quick-cast a Shadow Warp spell on himself so he could teleport to any shadow within view. He thought he needed it to keep out of range of Neko's blade.

However, the first time he warped, Neko traced him and swung his blade at X's new location. It took Xenophon delaying the teleport for him to survive. " _Speed shift,"_ Xenophon cast.

X found himself following as Neko turned his miss and tried to hit again. He ducked, but nearly got clipped as Neko adjusted his swing. Even with Xenophon's time magic, Neko was moving too fast for X to cast as normal. He had to settle for casting preset aura numbers of familiar spells to keep up.

And the first suitable spell that came to mind was Holy Spark. He ran the preset formula and adjusted his aura. Neko took the moment he paused to slice completely through X's body.

His concentration nearly broke. But he found it oddly like meditating when a fly decided to walk on one's nose. It could be done. He completed the spell.

It didn't quite finish him off, but Xenophon copied the spell three times to fully destroy him.

* * *

Astra hurried through Shadow Palace. In a room that mimicked both a cathedral sanctuary and an imperial throne room, she found Xenith, Omega, and Ikari. She flew up to Omega. " _Master."_

"What is it?"

" _The holy elf escaped with the thrall. Neko is dead, but he managed to slay X Light before he was defeated."_

"Excellent," Ikari said. "This bodes well for all of us."

* * *

Between Xenophon and the white wizard ghosts, X was repaired. Neko had cut him through the waist. A painful injury for a reploid, but nothing deadly if cared for in time. He had rejoined the Temple routines the next day.

But Xenophon was deeply upset over not being able to save Neko. X couldn't talk to him, due to his vow of silence. He could talk to Neko, though.

His ghost slipped between his last form, as a thrall with short hair, and his most familiar form, as a warrior with long hair. Sometimes his hands were bloody and sometimes they weren't. And he was confused more than other new ghosts were.

'I feel I should go back to where I was made,' he said a few times.

'That world is now destroyed,' X told him.

'How is that? Why am I here? Where is here? Where am I going?'

X did what he could to help Neko remember and settle his soul. That would allow him to move on. Except that he was worried for Xenophon, and the elf could not see or hear his friend. For two weeks, X tried to get them in contact. He couldn't. And every day became harder to not speak to Xenophon too.

'Why don't you tell him Neko is with him?' he asked one of his teachers.

'He is new to the spirit world. We do not tell others of the recently dead, until they are accustomed to their new state.'

'I see.'

'If he initiates contact, we will not stop him. But that is a difficult task for new dead.'

When it came time for X to leave for supplies, he wrote Xenophon a note. 'I'm not sure I can imagine how you feel, but I know my restrictions are not helping you. I suggest you come with me to Windell, then head out to Lunesk so you can be with other elves. And remember: so long as you keep the memory of those gone by, they will be close to you.'

* * *

August XX63

Equinox had a friend, sort of. With the eyes, it was hard to tell who a person really was. But he felt closer to this cousin than any other of his clan (except for Master Wily, he appeased the eye before it attacked). Grimshaw had to be taken to the Quiet Room and Equinox had been called to be with him. They had been taken in similar ways and Grim was now regretting it.

Grim was an interesting boy. He had dark brown skin, a dark brown eye, and dark brown hair. He was eight years old (and a year younger than him) and had come from Russia. Although Master Wily had forced him to speak clear English, Grim could speak Russian and sometimes still sounded it. His armor was a dark violet, reminiscent of a ninja.

With them, there was one other child soldier in the Wily Clan. Her name was Elsie Dee and she was ten. She had blond hair that she liked to have spiked behind her and was extremely fast. Because she had a natural power over non-sentient electronics, she was highly valuable to the clan. And because of that, she liked to claim that she was better than the two boys.

That made it really annoying to fight her in the practice arena. She dashed all over the floor, using her close-range electrical weapon when she got near them. As Equinox was supposed to be practicing with his bow, he was having a really hard time. No matter how quickly he could draw an arrow from his quiver, notch it, then aim, Elsie was faster at finding him and dashing his way. Yet since she was an electricity user, he couldn't use a shock bomb to stop her.

What he could use, though… he dodged past her current dash, then drew out a small blue bomb. He didn't know much with magic even though he was classified in the Sorcery Ring, but he could manage a tiny flame, enough to light the bomb. When Elsie turned and dashed back at him, he threw the bomb in her path.

It burst with a strong blue light, causing an ice summoning spell to go off. Unfortunately, it didn't freeze her as he'd wanted. Fortunately, it had a suitable side effect of causing her to slip onto her back. Equinox pulled out his arrows, which took the form of a long white ribbon. This ribbon was marked with a number of runic calculations, starting with an explosion spell and adding on a number of boosters. He fired that at Elsie; the crest ribbon turned into an arrow of light and caused red sparks to follow after. When it struck, it caused a red flash, a lethal explosion, and very little smoke.

He might have left it at that, but his training wouldn't allow him to. The orders for this match were 'make sure your opponent is dead'. Even the slightest feeling that she was a cousin of his wasn't enough to counter that order. Drawing his hidden knife out, he dashed over and jammed it into her skull.

The lights faded briefly in the practice stadium, showing that Elsie was no longer there physically. There was a layer of himself that was horrified that he could do that to anyone… but it was well hidden under words of obedience and service. Under his uncles' guidance, he had learned to detach himself when he had to do something like this, either in reality or in practice. But then, sometimes he had nightmares of his detached self.

"Well won," his current trainer said over the intercom. "I'm bringing you out to the staging area."

Equinox nodded as the aura of a teleport spell appeared around him. When he came to the staging area, he saw Elsie being put into a repair pod; she had been struck with the explosive arrow, after all. And Grimshaw was there, with his trainer Shadow. The other boy smiled at him for a moment. "Hey, that was a pretty cool trick you did to defeat her."

"Thanks," Equinox said, going over to them. "I had to get her to stop somehow. I'm at a disadvantage in a battle like that."

"You got lucky," Elsie said through a speaker on the now closed repair pod.

"It wasn't all luck, or even mostly," the current session Trainer said, turning her chair from the control panel and walking over to them. She was a silver-haired woman who had a curious armor effect of having many fiber optic wires with multicolored lights flashing through them. Unsurprisingly, her name was Rave Angel. Rave tapped the repair pod. "That was a strategic move, albeit a simple one. Which means that you have to give up leadership of the next mission to him."

"Oh fine," the girl said, annoyed.

"Now sleep so you can be repaired in time."

"The next mission?" Equinox asked, feeling knots of nervousness start to form.

"Right, in a short time," Rave said. "Equinox, you are going to be put in charge of an infiltration unit consisting of you, Elsie, and Grimshaw. I will be acting as a diversionary unit with Shadow. Our mission is to enter the city of Arminas and take it by force. The five of us will be sneaking in to take over the security system, your job, and to distract the city's guardians, our job. Once we have a hold, your group will allow several raid forces led by Sagittarius, Circe, Quick, Tengu, and Knight to enter the city gates. You will have to hold your position until we have a firm hold over Arminas."

"We're actually going to be taking over a city?" Equinox asked, surprised. "But I thought Master Wily hadn't ordered a large strike like this for decades and that we had shifted strategies."

The woman nodded. "Right, but we've become restricted in remaining at this location and the masters have decided that we must take a working city to increase our resources. So this is a very important battle and we must perform our best."

Then, oddly enough, she bit her lip and looked to Shadow. The older reploid bowed his head, then said, "You'll receive the orders directly within the day, both of you. We have been told to use lethal force as needed for this mission to be accomplished."

Lethal… Equinox had received a great many missions like that. Master Wily seemed to be perversely pleased in sending him on assassination missions (not that that was a bad thing, he thought hurriedly, as such things were necessary to prove his allegiance to Wily). But as far as he knew, Grimshaw had never been given orders to use lethal force. Had he even trained for that yet?

Probably not, given the pale look on his face and the sparkle of his gold eye. "D-do we need that for infiltration?" Grim asked, then added on, "I mean, it might get noticed."

"Sometimes you need it to get in unnoticed," Shadow said bluntly. However, he was gripping Grim's shoulder tight, which was the nearest to a comforting hug that they could get away with.

"I can handle those things, since it's my job," Equinox said, emphasizing the last word sarcastically. With a barrage of excuses and mantras to give the gold eye, he was starting to learn how to get away with saying such things.

Unfortunately, that made Grim look to him in a bit of fright, as if wondering if Equinox really was his friend, or nice in comparison to the older clansmen. Then Rave said, "Yes, you are quite adapt that that, killing your victims before they even realize that they're in danger. He'll do well in leading you three; I have my doubts about Elsie being ready for such a position."

"Are the Dark Hunters going to be involved?" Grim asked, probably trying to distract himself momentarily so he didn't go quiet.

Rave shook her head. "No, they'll be involved in another mission. Still, we'll all do our best in the name of Master Wily."

"Yes, for his glory," Equinox said.

Grim nodded, looking less nervous about him now. But as for the mission, both of the boys found themselves struggling against the gold eyes for a long time after.

* * *

August XX63

They were playing in a large sunny field with many other kids. But it felt wrong. They had been ordered to play and be normal kids. No matter what they tried, Equinox, Grimshaw, and Elsie could not really be like the normal kids.

Equinox and Grim wound up overturning rocks for bugs for their definition of play. "So your dad was one of the elite Dark Hunters?"

"Yeah. Ballade." He hadn't felt his father's presence after he got the eye transplant. Had he disappointed him?

Grim nudged him. "This isn't the time to go quiet."

He shook his head. "Yeah, I know." He watched a beetle. "Who's your dad?"

"My trainer."

"Shadow?"

He nodded. "Yeah, him. My adopted parents kept telling me not to trust him, but I always thought he was great." Something passed through his mind that made his eye sparkle for a second. "He is great. But the Dark Hunters. Man, they're still the best."

"True," Equinox stated. As he noticed Grim was still struggling with some conflicted thought, he changed the subject. "Hey, do you think King is a second gen like us?"

It worked, making his friend look up to him. "King? What makes you think that?"

"He has a gold eye like us. All the second gens that I know for sure have gold eyes, and all the first gens I know for sure have silver eyes."

Grim thought about it, then said, "I heard King was from outer space."

"I heard Uncle Punk say that King was a terrible liar."

"Actually, the foreigners have gold eyes too, like Rave."

"Ah. So it might be that only those directly made by our great master are granted the silver eye. Or maybe rebuilt. I seem to remember Sagittarius saying that he was rebuilt by Master Wily."

"It will be a mystery until Master Wily deems us worthy of the truth." There was a loud whistle. Both of them tensed. "That's the signal," Grim said. His gold eye glimmered.

Equinox stood up. He didn't like… he nearly thought 'this plan', but changed it to 'waiting for action'. "Be proud. We get to do something for the glory of our master."

"Right."

They ran over to the three buses, meeting up with Elsie, Rave Angel, and Shadow. None of them had come by bus, but the supervisors didn't notice as the extra kids and adults got on the last bus together. They sat in the back seats.

Giving him a glare, Elsie still seemed to hate him for being made their leader. "So how's it going?"

"We can't fail our grandfather," Equinox whispered.

Elsie straightened up at that. Grimshaw also came to attention and Rave raised her eyebrow. At that phrase, they couldn't afford to ignore him or deny his leadership.

"Any of you get questioned?" he added.

"Nope," Rave said. Shadow gave a slight smile at his authoritative tone, but shook his head.

"I had a boy ask who I was," Elsie said. "I told him to buzz off."

"Good," Rave responded. "Let's not falter one step. The others are counting on us."

"I do wish we weren't bringing you kids along," Shadow said. Equinox felt surprised by that, maybe a bit insulted. But then he saw Shadow's struggle to work his thoughts out. "You lot don't have the training and experience necessary to be fully reliable here. Don't mess up."

They rode into the city, still pretending to be normal people. Inside the gate, the buses stopped. All five hoped that it wouldn't be an in-bus search. They could pull it off if need be, but it would be messier. So they were relieved when the supervisor called everyone off the bus to be checked. While the two adults could slip away quickly, the three others had to wait a bit before they could go.

The Wily children had been strictly disciplined ever since they joined the clan, so seeing the merry chaos caused by the other children caused them to shake heads and roll their eyes (and on some level, miss being like that…but they had to be careful thinking that). As soon as there was an extra chaotic moment, they slipped away from the crowd to a door in the wall. The guard here had gone to help search the children. Elsie used her power on the electronic lock and let them all inside.

For most of the way to the control room, they had little difficulty. Elsie could fool any electronic lock as well as keep cameras off them. But close to the control room, there was a hefty door with a non-electric deadbolt lock. They had to find another method. Hiding in a break room, they hid by a vending machine.

"You two stay here," Equinox mouthed. "I'll get…"

"I'll come," Grim mouthed back. Elsie nodded too.

But he was planning on… they probably could guess it. "You sure?"

"It's not like…" Elsie stumbled for a bit on her words, with her gold eye sparkling lightly.

His normal eye said no, but Grim nodded and bit his lip.

Equinox swallowed nervously. He knew what his cousins were thinking, and it wasn't a good thought. But in the clan, Grim and Elsie would have to face this sooner or later. Equinox nodded back, then moved them from by the vending machine to behind a bench. They could see the room fully now, but anyone entering would not notice them immediately. From a pocket in his quiver, he pulled out one of his spell stones. He checked it, then put it into his slingshot cup. With that, he pulled it back to ready and waited.

A Guardian walked in, not thinking he was in danger. On first look, he was a human. Equinox noted his uniform, approved, then shot the man in the head. The Pierce Metal slug ripped right through his skull and into the next room. He had hoped for a reploid, because a human's death scene was messier. But this mission counted on speed.

Grim looked sickened on the scene; his gold eye sparkled bright. It was the first time he'd seen someone killed up close. While Elsie didn't react as strongly outwardly, she did pale and tremble. To give them a moment to recompose, Equinox got up and searched the Guardian's pockets. He came up with a wallet with sixty-four dollars and a security key. He took those, leaving the rest alone. "Come on, Grim, Elsie."

His friend came up, giving the man a spooked look. "How do you do that?" His gold eye reacted again.

Equinox felt sympathetic… and his eye snapped at him. "Practice," he said. "I've been killing since I was seven."

Grim looked horrified at that, but shortly calmed down. He had to; they were on a mission. "Right."

Trying not to look at the red spattered walls, Elsie asked, "What're you gonna do to hide this?"

"When we get into the control room," he answered, "you're going to make sure that room is off limits. So we have to get in fast. It should be just past that door."

Inside the control room, Equinox had to kill an officer, then drag the two bodies out of immediate sight. When he got back, Elsie was hacked into the network. Grim was taking down shields as Elsie got them open. Equinox checked the screens, moving locations until he found Rave. She was on her diversionary shooting spree in a shopping complex. According to the plan, Shadow would be hiding nearby, adding to the chaos by sniping. Guardians and Patrolmen gathered to stop her.

Patrolmen? There wasn't supposed to be any Field Patrol members in Arminas. Maybe it was a coincidence; a handful could have come here on break. He let the raid leaders know, then signaled them to come in.

Equinox studied the battle over the next several hours. Despite having the guards down and Rave attempting to draw attention, there were Patrolmen and Guardians out to meet all the invading parties. There definitely shouldn't be that many Patrols in the area. Equinox opened a com link to the invasion leader. "A-10, we may have had a leak. Too many demons on site to be coincidental; gargoyles are too alert. All units are in trouble."

"Advised," Sagittarius replied. "All units, swap to tactic M."

Tactic M, meaning they were going to massacre as many opponents as possible before withdrawing completely. Grim frowned. "This will get messy."

Equinox did his best not to let it bother him. He had to be detached today. "Elsie, find any built-in weapons programs that we can use to assist."

For a moment, she went pale and her gold eye flashed. Then she shook her head to clear it. "Yes, sir. Searching."

Before she could find those programs, the door came open again. Equinox's uncle... no. The enemy of the clan, Blues Light, came in alone. He was expecting to take the control room back by force; his orange runic blade, his rune shield, they were both active. And his faithful elf Ska wasn't in view, meaning he had probably melded his soul with Blues' to increase his powers.

Blues looked at his three opponents, the gold eyed children. His response was, "Oh hell."

"We will take down any enemy of the clan," Equinox said, drawing his short sword. "Right Grim?"

"R-right." He whipped out both of his shock sticks, but it was evident by his normal eye and his posture that he wasn't prepared to take on the old hero.

"If it must be that way," Blues said, sounding detached himself. Then he dashed over to shield bash Elsie in the head before she got any further in taking over the city's weapons systems.

Elsie squealed; her head hit the counter and she fell unconscious. Blues hit her with a sleeping spell to keep her out of the battle. Working together, Grim tried to attack Blues from his right side, while Equinox took an open shot at his left hip with the short sword. It wasn't much use, as Blues readily blocked Grim with his shield and Equinox with his sword.

Then the eyes decided the boys were being lenient on the clan enemy. Equinox watched in horror as his former uncle was transformed into a bestial warrior. Then his hatred and anger were focused on this beast warrior, which made it much easier to battle.

Enraged, Grim tried to jump past Blues and strike with the shock sticks at a weak point of his armor. It didn't work, but it got him in front of Equinox. Now guarded, Equinox pulled out his father's spellbow and a crest ribbon. Compound spellbows could launch a sequence of high powered spells: the arrows were actually ribbons or paper strips that had the spell sequence written out on it. Placed inside the bow, the ribbon turned into an energy bolt. Equinox fired off an arrow meant to break the armor of a tank, being a sequence of Peirce Metal, Peirce Rune Guard, Def-less Fire, and Flash Flare.

Blues couldn't block the arrow in the small space of the control room. The spell arrow's final spell made the room get hotter and burned most of his right leg. With their enemy weakened to the Fire element, Grim turned his shock sticks into torches. Equinox searched out the ribbon that had a long string of fire spells.

But the old hero ignored his new weakness, choosing to use Plant based spell called Somber Scent. He purposely swept his blade too high over Grimshaw. The spell on the blade trailed a shower of pollen dust. Once that pollen hit Grim's nose, he collapsed, asleep and soon to be paralyzed.

"Stay calm, Equinox," Blues said. "I won't kill you; I'll see to it that you get home."

But Equinox still saw him as a beast warrior. Only now, the beast was one that had stuck down his two comrades. In a flash, he swapped his bow and ribbon to his left hand, drew his assassin blade, and stabbed past the rune shield. "I'll kill you!"

Before he could strike, Blues interrupted him with a Water spell. His blade hit Equinox like a powerful ocean wave. Although he crashed into the wall behind him, he took the fire ribbon and turned that into a spell arrow. It hit Blues with near lethal force.

The delusion faded. Equinox felt his throat tighten, as he was assaulted by a strong sense of guilt and an equally strong pain of the golden eye. Although that fire based arrow would have killed any ordinary person, Blues was still breathing. He knew the eye would not allow him to let his uncle live.

Reluctant yet, Equinox walked over slowly. He knelt down. And before the eye could stop him, he said, "I'm sorry, Uncle Blues." Then he cringed at the sharp pain.

"Equinox... you can't control it, then." He cast one last spell. "This is for your own good."

The delusion came back as Blues put Phantom Hand around Equinox to choke him. Equinox struggled vainly to get out and kill the one killing him. On some level, he trusted his uncle to not kill him. He was only trying to save him from the eye. But he had to keep those thoughts well buried under more loyal thoughts.

And then a real hand yanked him out of the grip of Phantom Hand.

Equinox gasped for air. When his systems settled down, he noticed the invasion group had left Arminas for the wilderness. "I want to know who messed this operation up," Sagittarius said sternly. "This should have gone smoothly. Instead, we have nine Demon Patrols that were waiting for us. Who leaked the operation?"

Rave Angel was next to him, making sure he was breathing. She had been hurt badly, as had nearly everyone else there. "You did just fine," she whispered. "You got us out before we lost."

Grim's father Shadow sat by them. Equinox glanced around. "Where's Grim and Elsie?"

"They were down when I got there," Rave told him. "I was told to take out any of you three still up and fighting. That was just you."

"They were just asleep. Although... they might kill them. It might not be worth going after them." His gold eye flickered, sensing his true motives. "It'd be too risky to go back into Arminas."

"You got that right," Shadow said. He stroked Equinox's hair. "Sorry we had to pull you out." His silver eye flared bright.

Rave's did too, until she said, "Yeah, before you had Blues dead. I don't know how a kid pulled it off, but you nearly managed to eliminate that enemy. You should be honored for the effort, I think. We shouldn't have kids in the clan," her gold eye sparkled then, "cause you're not strong enough to do what we ask."

At least Grim and Elsie are soon to be free, Equinox thought. He wound up going quiet in punishment for that thought.

* * *

September XX64

Equinox sat in a chair, waiting patiently. Now that he was the only child soldier in the Wily clan, a unique problem had come up. He was ten years old and normally he would be given his adult form now. Anticipating that, he had read up on that material. But it was only now, a week into September, that he was getting called in about it.

Both masters met with him today, Master Wily in his support saucer and Ikari dressed in his usual black and gray robes. "We've decided not to upgrade you to your adult form," the latter said. "We will be updating some of your systems. But for the time being, we've decided that you're most useful to us as a child assassin."

Equinox felt disappointed, but bowed his head. "As you wish," he responded.


	44. Promise of Spring

April 22, XX68  
somewhere in the wilderness

Zero was locked in combat with an ogre. It was a nasty thing. Barely a hominoid, it had greenish-gray skin, scraggly black hairs, and a stained brown set of overalls. This particular ogre had an ominous 'W' tattooed onto its bulky arms. It was probably something that Wily summoned, then lost track of. Many monsters had that tattoo. Judging from the teeth, it probably ate anything remotely like meat.

Since it wasn't particularly intelligent, it should have been an easy kill. However, Zero was dealing with a standard rune blade. It was sufficient for most blade users, but insufficient for his style. Over the years, he had picked up a range of powerful sword spells that he was very good with. But his best spells required a blade that could handle high concentrations of aura. The Field Patrol Standard was not one of those blades.

It was becoming apparent that this ogre had skin too tough for his arm blaster to handle. What would his father have done? Zero found himself thinking that a lot in the past several years. He really wanted to make Forte's spirit proud of him, and to show that he could have been a hero too if given the chance. He checked his blade; the handle had calmed down from an intense buzzing earlier. Taking a chance, Zero calculated Bonebreak, then aimed to hit the ogre right through the spine, down into the heart, and through the lungs. That should kill it.

Bonebreak slammed right through the beast's spine. But as he went to finish the strike, the FPS gave off a high pitched whine, then exploded. The plasma material of the blade blasted out of the ogre's body, sending chunks of oily flesh and hot residue everywhere. The force of the explosion snapped Zero's arm back, almost completely off his shoulder. And after getting showered with weapon-grade plasma, he was screaming in pain.

Before long, a goblin that had been with the ogre came over to see if his flesh was still edible. There was a haze of blue and black. Then, Sandy appeared and beheaded the goblin. "Good lord, are you still alive?"

"Would it be less painful if I wasn't?"

"Hang on." Sandy let loose a bolt of lightning, hitting some enemy that Zero couldn't see. Then he tapped his head. "Boomer, Zero's blade exploded. Needs immediate med evac."

"Get him out of here, Cyber," Boomer ordered.

"Aye, Commander. Sending him ahead to Fort Rydia."

Zero braced himself for the transfer. A minute later, he'd been given enough painkillers to fall asleep.

* * *

Fort Rydia

"You're lucky that plasma didn't get into your cores," the healer-engineer told him. "You need to be more careful with those blades."

"I am careful," Zero said. "Those Standards can't handle my magic, though."

"You could rely a little less on them," Boomer said.

Zero looked over to see that his commander had entered the room silently. "I can do that, but I'm more effective with the spells."

Boomer twitched his antennae, then nodded to the healer. "How is he?"

"No permanent damage. He needs thirty hours of rest before he can go into battle again. I'll give him some sleeping pills for tonight, then he should be fine."

"Good. Thank you."

"If you'll excuse me." The healer left.

"Not that we'll be in battle for several months," Zero commented. Their patrol was being stationed at Fort Rydia, which meant six months of nothing much exciting. Stationed patrols were mostly in charge of fort maintenance and taking care of resting patrols.

"One never knows," Boomer said, sitting in one of the chairs. "What's certain, though, is that I'm not assigning you another rune blade."

"What? What sort of spellsword am I if I don't have a blade?"

"I know how you fight and I respect your abilities. But you're lucky to be alive after that explosion. I'm not going to risk your life again by giving you a blade that can't handle your powers. If you do manage to find a suitable blade and prove that it won't kill you, I'll let you use it. But until then, you'll have to move to a gunner's position."

Zero held back his temper, knowing this was a reasonable move. However, he also knew that some of his best spells, like Bonebreak, would not work with any sort of gun. "All right. I can accept that."

"Good. I am sorry that I have to do this to you. I know how expensive some blades can be."

"I'll find one, somehow."

* * *

Zero was about to take the sleeping pills and go to bed, but a familiar presence came to him. 'I'm worried about you,' X said telepathically.

'Don't worry,' he thought back. 'I just blew up my blade.'

'I told you it was too dangerous to keep using for strong spells.'

'I thought I had it under control. I made it do more than it was supposed to, I guess.'

'Are you hurt badly?'

'Nothing vital got damaged. It was very painful.' He rubbed his shoulder. 'My arm still feels a bit off.'

'As long as it's just that.'

'I'm supposed to be taking some pills for sleep, but I can put it off a while to talk to you. How's your training going? I keep getting strange feelings from you.'

'I've been entering deep trances lately, that's why. They have taught me how to move my mind into other realms.'

'Realms? You mean like other worlds?'

'I haven't made it that far yet, but I can. I'm hoping to view the world Xenophon is from; I have something to give him.'

'Can't you just do that now? Their world is gone.'

'I know, but I think I can move my mind to the past and pass it along. I'm not sure what will happen, but I feel the possibility will help.'

'I'll take your word for it. That concept is too weird.'

He felt X laugh, then say, 'These dreamworld walks are one of the secrets of the White ring. Partly because, yes, the theory behind it is difficult to grasp. Gregory informs me that my final test is approaching, and it will take place in the dreamworld.'

'Be careful, then. Any test like that can't be easy.'

'I know. The odd thing is, I can't sense anything about it. My third eye refuses to see the future at the moment.'

'It could be part of the test.'

'Could be.'

'So when are you getting back to civilization?'

X paused. 'That depends. Time flows differently in dreams. I could come back as soon as July, or as late as November. Next November, I mean.'

'You still have no idea when you'll be done?'

'None. And we won't be able to contact each other at all. Not unless I forfeit the test, and I have no intention of doing that.'

'Oh. I understand. It is important that you finish, and it would be hard for us to talk when my mind is in reality and yours is off dreaming in another world.'

'That's sort of what will happen. So you're okay with this?'

'It's fine, X. Go ahead. We'll have plenty of time to talk when you come back.'

'That's true. What will you be up to?'

'Field Patrol work, of course. Right now, we've been stationed at Fort Rydia.'

'Ah, so you'll be bored to tears.'

He chuckled. 'I hope not, but it could happen. I intend on trying to find a way to get a good blade. Boomer says he won't allow me to use any sword until I can prove it won't kill me.'

'Good for him.'

'I might be able to get one while being here. I'll double check my resources; I don't really want to borrow money, but if I have to, I will.'

'You could try asking the elves.'

'Elven swords are the best, but those ones are really expensive.'

'Yes, but if you agree to do a quest or something in exchange, the elves might grant you a fitting sword. And all the resources I've seen indicate that the elves do not sell their best creations. These items are granted as rewards only.'

'Huh. I might try that.'

'Just be careful doing so. Bonded elves are good, but the best equipment is going to come from an independent elf. And those elves can be mischievous and unsympathetic. If you ask them for a sword directly, they're not likely to give you one.'

'How do I ask them, then?'

'If Boomer lets you search for an elven sword, I recommend that you first seek out one of the White Fairies. Like the Lunar Priestess Clymesta in Lunesk. Those elves...'

'You said fairy.'

'It's a title. The White Fairy elves are chosen for benevolence and wisdom, and so would be able to advise you on how to find a smith who isn't also a trickster.'

'All right. I'll see about getting a week or two off.'

'Good. I suppose I shouldn't be keeping you from resting too much longer.'

'Probably not. Are we going to talk again before your final test?'

'No. So, goodbye for now.'

'Not goodbye. Talk to you later.'

'Right.'

* * *

April 23, XX68  
Fort Rydia

Zero spoke to his commander about taking two weeks off to search for an elven sword. "You think you can do that in two weeks?" Boomer asked.

"I'm not certain. But I can at least look into it. See what I have to do to get one."

"It could take some time for you to finish a quest for an elf. Then again, we are just being stationed at a low-risk fort."

Zero nodded. Rydia was a waystation, really. Some of the longest trade routes ran past this fort, so most caravans stopped here to repair vehicles or rest in safety. It was a lovely area, but there were many monsters here, so no permanent city had appeared by Rydia. And while Master Wily was showing interest in reclaiming old territory, Rydia wasn't of much use to him.

Before Boomer could give his decision, Sandy opened the door. "Hey... oh, sorry, didn't realize."

"It's fine," Zero said. "Nothing sensitive going on here."

"Come on in. What are you here for?"

"I wanted to ask about getting off-duty for two weeks in May. Iris wants to travel and I'd rather her be with me."

"Where's she going?" Zero asked.

He shrugged. "I don't think she knows. She's just curious and happens to have the last half of next month free. I'd like to play it safe and just go to another city, but she'll probably want to go see some wilderness."

Boomer put his hands together and thought for a moment. "You know, if she is going into the wilderness just to look, she'll need two guards, not one."

"Yeah, but she's a lady and not used to being treated poorly. If she goes, I'm going with her to protect her."

"If she hasn't decided yet, Zero here is going to Lunesk to ask about how to earn an elven sword."

"Really?"

"Yes. That seems to be my best option for finding a sword that won't potentially kill me."

Boomer smiled. "And I think between the two of you, nobody would try messing with Iris."

* * *

April 30

Cyber Peacock was a civil engineer soldier. So when he saw that the power system of Rydia hadn't been worked on in decades, he was incensed. He had recruited Zero to help him this week with fixing things. "And someone needs to reprogram those shaft cleaners," Cyber said, after a sneezing fit. "Make a note of that."

"Sure." Zero typed in, 'reprogram shaft cleaners.' "That bad in there?"

"It is a disgrace. You need to keep the air pure and the surfaces dust free. If a free spark got in here, we'd have a fire. And as things are now, if we had a fire, all the power would be gone. Even the fort shields would be gone." There were thumps as Cyber moved along the maintenance shaft.

Zero pushed the computer cart to follow. From one of the EC vents, the eye of one of Cyber's tail feathers poked out. He may have been tall, but his body was slim enough that he could get into those shafts. Although once he got out, he'd be upset to find out that his tail had gotten dusty as well.

"I hear you're getting off for a few weeks to see your little girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," Zero said. "I'm helping Sandy look out for her."

"Oh come out with it. You guys exchange two or three letters a week."

"That's because she's my friend and we have interesting discussions going on."

"Right," Cyber said sarcastically. "So if she's not your girlfriend, why do you open her letters before your mother's?"

"I do not," he protested, although he knew that he did.

"And you get so disappointed if you get a letter and it's not from her. And then when her letters do come, you're all happy and smiley."

"She's just my friend."

"And I'm a monkey's uncle."

"Um, Cyber? Your nephew is a chimpanzee."

"Technicalities. You're in love with Iris."

"And what do you care about it for?"

"Just trying to help my patrol, that's all."

Zero crossed his arms, although Cyber couldn't see him from the shaft. "The electrical problem seems to be just ahead of you."

"I know that. Don't change the subject."

"Look, Cyber. Do you remember what happened to the last guy who flirted with Iris?"

"How can I forget? Sandy took one evening off and vanished. Then he got a warning because he'd punched the guy hard enough to break his nose in four places. Of course, he was a first class jerk."

"Yeah, and Sandy happens to be in our patrol. If he happens to get angry with me, he'll know right where I am."

"Maybe. Then again, he knows you and he trusts you. Go on, grab her before she convinces her brother not to beat up on some other guy she likes. Cause, well, don't tell Sandy I said this, but she is a pretty girl and she's gonna wind up with somebody sooner or later. Probably sooner."

"Somebody like you?"

"Whoa, hang on there. Yeah, she's pretty and nice, and sweet, but not exactly my kind of girl. On the other hand, you two are already sending all those letters."

Zero was quiet for a minute. In the EC shaft, Cyber grinned.

"Think about it, man. Then snatch her first."

* * *

May 14, XX68  
Lunesk

"Here we go; we need these." Iris picked up a clip on earring from a basket at the station gift shop.

"Earrings?" Sandy asked, not really wanting to wear one.

"They're Elf translators," she said, pointing out the sign. "This is the largest community of elves anywhere. Unless you don't want to understand most of the population, you'd better wear it."

"These only last a month," Zero pointed out. "But we're only here for two weeks."

After buying the earrings (Sandy would only wear one), they went back to security to pick up their luggage. Then they went through the underground tunnel into the city walls. The uniqueness of this city was immediately apparent, as three of the six tunnel guards were elves. And then there was the sheer artistic design of everything. It was like the elves dictated that there would be no straight lines in their city.

"This is so much more amazing in person," Iris said, already in love with the city.

"Yeah," Zero replied. "How're we supposed to find the hotel anyhow?"

"We could just take the bus. The road design here is a little, organic."

"A bit more like chaotic," he said, looking over the map. "They have three seven road crossings. And that big hub, where eight roads meet."

Iris pointed to one open area. "There's the Lunar Temple. Do you want to stop by there first?"

"Checking into the hotel sounds better. There it is. That trapezoid of a building."

She laughed. "Trapezoid?"

"Well what would you call that?"

A smile got onto her face. "And we are going to be by the Flower Pavilion. My friend Chantal said spring is the best time to go see that, when all of the flowers are in first bloom."

"That sounds neat. You want to see that first?"

"You do have your sword to find."

"Hey guys," Sandy said, nudging his sister. "Are we going anywhere right now?"

Iris laughed. "All right, big brother. Let's go to the hotel."

On their way to the bus stop, Sandy got run into by a racing elf. "Hey, watch it there... huh?"

" _Oh, sorry,"_ the elf said. " _I was just playing."_ The elf tilted his head. " _Why're you looking at me funny?"_

"You look..." he pointed the elf over to Zero.

One could tell the elf was young by green energy circles around his hands and feet. Elves lost this sign when they turned a year old. Otherwise, he looked strangely like Zero, with a similar face, blue eyes, and long blond hair. The elf wore white clothes and a gold cross necklace, indicating it was a Holy elf. It also had white angelic wings.

The young one flitted over to Zero. _"How weird. Are you Zero Light?"_

"Yes. How do you know me?"

He smiled broadly. " _I'm Neko!"_

Now that he thought about it, the elf Neko did sound like him too. "Neko?"

" _Xenophon's told me lots about you. I didn't expect to see you so soon, though. Whatcha doing?"_

"We're visiting Lunesk for a few days," Iris said.

"This is Iris and her brother Sandy."

" _Nice to meet you too. This is a good place. I know of lots of neat things around here."_

"We were just going to catch a bus to Hotel Twilight."

" _That's a great place. It has this chandelier in the lobby that's made up of nearly a thousand gold butterflies. Fake ones, not real, although they look kinda real when the air blows on them."_

" _There you are Neko,"_ Xenophon called, stopping by them. " _Your class starts soon; you need to get going."_

To Zero's surprise, Neko whined about it. " _Do I have to? I just met Zero."_

Xenophon's aura brightened. " _Good afternoon Zero, Iris, Sandy. It's been a while."_

"Did we even meet you?" Sandy asked.

" _Maybe not as you remember."_

Neko laughed at that.

"This is Neko?" Zero asked.

" _Of course I'm Neko,"_ the young elf insisted.

" _Well,"_ he paused. " _He is my ward, and he needs to go to class."_

" _But it's boring."_

" _You have to pass it in order to bond with someone."_

" _Oh fine."_

" _We can talk more later. He might be a reincarnation. Might be. I'll find you when we have time."_

"All right. We'll be at Hotel Twilight for two weeks."

" _Good, then it shouldn't be hard. See you all later."_

" _Bye!"_ Neko said cheerfully.

* * *

May 14, XX68  
Lunesk

While on their way to supper at a nearby restaurant, Sandy ran into another elf, this one named Ramiel De Ruze. Ramiel was quite insistent on going with them, and before the night was up, he had bonded with Sandy. "Not what I came here for, but I suppose the odds were good," Sandy said to that.

Ramiel wanted to introduce Sandy to some people, so they left the other two. Iris really wanted to see the Flower Pavilion. Zero wasn't about to argue with her, so they went to the garden.

It was a lovely evening, even with the crisp wind that managed to find any gap in one's jacket. There were flowers everywhere in the garden, even a few hardy ones that lived on the concrete barriers holding in more delicate plants. As the sun went down, the jasmine started to bloom. Its scent soon overpowered every other flower there.

"Normally this lily would smell nice," Iris said, "but that jasmine is really strong."

They talked about a lot, but nothing really serious. Later, Zero would sometimes remember how it got started. There had been many passing subjects, but eventually he had said, "You know, I keep all your letters."

"Do you?" she said, smiling.

"Yeah, even though you write me more than anyone else."

Iris laughed at that, leaving Zero feeling both bashful and wanting to hug her right there. He settled on touching her hand, which she took. "You're kidding me, right?"

"No. My mom writes me a lot, but not as much as you do."

"I hope you don't think it's silly. I just like talking to you."

"I love reading your letters."

"Yours are always nice."

"Iris, I love you."

She gave him a puzzled look, which Zero hopefully translated as 'I hope you're not kidding'. "Are you being silly now?"

"No, I..." he wasn't sure what to say, so went to kiss her instead.

He wound up bumping into her nose, which made her giggle.

"Oh, sorry, I, um..."

She touched his chin. "I don't see you get flustered, ever."

"I'm not flustered, I... okay, so maybe I am."

"Here." She leaned over to kiss him. "Hey, hold still."

"You surprised me."

"Well you surprised me first."

"But I do love you. I've been thinking of that for... how much do you know about kissing?"

That got another laugh out of her. "Oh, I kissed a few guys on stage. I was hoping this one would actually mean something."

"So you like me too?"

"I like you, but if you want to know more, hold still this time."

"Okay."

This time, the interruption came from a small dog who decided to run right between them. Iris squealed and hopped back. The dog's owner came running by. "Sorry. Come back here!"

Zero glanced around and noticing someone looking away rather quickly. "We are in a public place."

"Then follow me." She gripped his hand and ran off for a trellis with a climbing rose on it.

This time they kissed, and it was wonderful.

* * *

" _I hope you don't think I'm being sudden with this_ ," Remiel said. _"I know we just met and all, but I'm almost two years old. They were going to assign me to Guard duty, and I want to travel so badly."_

"It's all right," Sandy told his new elf. "I'm off for some time, so we can get to know each other. After that, my patrol goes all over the place."

" _That's good. I've always been here in Lunesk. It's nice, but there's so much about the world that I want to know and see."_

"Actually, right now we're stuck at station duty in a fort. But it's an interesting area."

" _If it's somewhere different, I don't care how long we're stuck there."_

"It'd better not be for more than our assigned time." He opened the suite door to find his sister and friend talking on the couch. "You two have a good evening?"

"Yeah," Zero said. "We went out looking at flowers and stuff."

Iris giggled.

"I got to meet some... interesting folks."

Zero whispered something to Iris.

"Let me tell him," she replied.

"What?" Sandy asked.

"Big brother?" She came over to him, smiling the sort of smile she had when plotting mischief.

"Are you up to something?" he joked with her.

"Not really. But Zero is my boyfriend now, and there's nothing you can do about it, so you'd better just accept it."

Zero chuckled at this.

Sandy sat down on the bed. "What?"

"Zero is my boyfriend."

As he always thought, hearing this made him feel uneasy. He had sworn to his father that he would protect his mother and sister from any who would hurt them. She was an adult now, and it was really her choice. But to let some other man be with her and just trust them... well, at least it was Zero. Zero was honorable and trustworthy.

"All right. But you'd better not hurt her, or I'll thrash you like you've never been thrashed before." Sandy did smile with this, letting him know it was a joke. At least, for now it was just a joke.

"I would never hurt her." He came over and put his arm around her.

"And you two are still sleeping in separate rooms."

* * *

May 16, XX68

It was late at night, in the Twilight Hotel of Lunesk. One of the bathroom mirrors shimmered black briefly. A shadow slipped out and formed into Omega. He couldn't be here long, although the strong auras here tempted him. He sent out a message.

Seconds later, a shadow elf slipped under the door. " _Master Omega, good to see you again,"_ Memnock greeted.

Omega nodded. "What news do you have of him?"

" _He has no elf yet. He had a girlfriend. And he can't handle… no, I mean, no ordinary blade can handle him. Which do you want to know more about?"_

"His girlfriend."

" _Iris, he's known her since childhood."_ Memnock's aura flickered distastefully. " _She's a pure maiden, so I can't touch her. Their love is young and pure, for the time being. Given time, we might be able to drive a wedge between them."_

"It's been long enough. And the blades."

" _His soul is powerful, but you already know that. He is practiced in sword magic, but with the resilient Dusty Blade. When he tries to use ordinary blades for his magic, they shatter. He is planning on seeking a potent blade for his magic. Along with a powerful elf to match his soul."_

"But he would know your kind…"

" _You could curse a blade and get that to him."_

"I'll work on it. Fine; carry on your observations. You're doing well."

" _Master Omega, what of his soul brother, the white mage? I believe he is in contact with X's spirit."_

"Don't worry. His spirit is no threat. I must leave before I am found." He quietly recited the return spell and left Rydia.

Memnock flickered in anxiety, but soon calmed himself. If Master Omega and Master Xenith weren't worried, it would be okay for the shadows. Memnock slipped back out to spy on Zero.


	45. Demon Sword Firingi

May 19, XX68

It was a clear beautiful day and the Lunesk City Guard said that the lands around the city were quiet. So Sandy, Remiel, and Zero decided that it was a safe enough day to bring Iris out into the wilderness. They convinced to wear her natural armor dress for it (although she did accessorize with a silk scarf), then left the city.

Much of the land outside of the elf city had once been farmland, flat prairie with only a few low hills and shallow dips to break it up. Now it was just open wild land, inhabited by wildlife and monsters. The main features were the railroad and a river a few miles from the city. Planning on taking a picnic lunch by the river, the three reploids and one elf followed a trail parallel to the railroad. It was an easy and pleasant hike, with the cool breeze, the warm sun, the tall lush grasses, the vibrant wildflowers, the wide perfect blue sky… it was so different from the packed cities and the gloomy fort halls.

At the river, they set up a blanket and had sandwiches and soda for lunch. A train passed over the stone and iron bridge while they were there; it thundered past them, then gave a long whistle as it went into its long braking sequence to stop in Lunesk. That briefly disturbed the local wildlife, but they soon returned to their routines, with a few keeping an eye on the visitors.

Much of the conversation was between Zero and Iris, although Sandy occasionally teased them about being a third party on a date.

Afterwards, they hung out at the riverside, talking and seeing if there were any interesting stones on the banks. At one point, Remiel chimed something from Sandy's shoulder that made her turn serious. He waved the younger two over. "Guys, Remiel says he senses something out of place and it could be malicious."

"Do we want to head back?" Zero asked, nudging Iris to go over to her brother. Then he felt it, something like a fierce fire burning within his body.

He turned and saw a giant flaming sword. It was nearly as tall as he was, with flames rising off it into a hilt. Engraved on the blade were the words, 'Fire Dragon, Master of Summer'. They had transformed the Ice Dragon, but had never defeated the Fire Dragon.

"Get back," he called to Iris. Turning to see it, she yelped and took several steps back until her brother came to her side. Zero activated his buster and fired without a pause. "You won't take me again!"

"Zero, I'm better in short range currently," Sandy said, sending a lightning bolt at the sword.

"But it's after me, not you two," he said.

The sword slashed air and produced a power wave. Behind him, Sandy pulled his sister out of the way and set up a defensive spell. Zero leapt right over power wave, summoned his broom, and fired off a stored Dirt Tornado. The sword took damage, but not enough to take it down.

Then the sword whipped its flames out to him. They caught his right wrist and latched on. Before he knew it, he was holding the flaming Fire Dragon's sword. Dark flames invaded his body again. Zero tried to fight it off with his mind, but his mystical powers weren't developed enough for that. For a moment, he was drowning in fire again and was afraid.

"Zero!" Iris called out in concern.

That snapped him out of its initial draw. He was able to bring his mind back to the reality of the moment; he had locked blades with Sandy. For a moment, he looked angered, but then calmed down. "You… he's back!"

In seconds, he was struck by a cold blast which froze him into a block of ice. Much of it soon evaporated as the flaming sword made contact with it. A human woman wearing a blue cloak came his view. "Young lady, if I may borrow your scarf?"

"Oh, yes," Iris said, unwrapping the white silk from her neck and handing it to the wizard.

"Don't you…" the sword managed to growl out before he got control of himself.

"Keep control of yourself," the wizard told him, then grabbed right arm and began wrapping Iris' scarf around it.

The burning sensation continued for some time, until the wizard got to wrapping his hand. At that point, it ended abruptly, leaving him to shiver involuntarily. The flaming sword had vanished too, but he could feel it as an alien entity waiting for the chance to incinerate the scarf and be free.

After speaking a silent blessing, the wizard let him go. "That should keep it restrained, for now."

"Good, thanks," Sandy said, deactivating his blade.

"We'll do our duties as the Guardians of Lunesk," another wizard said, coming up to them as well. "It is strange, though, for a demonic possession to occur so suddenly."

"It was not sudden," something spoke through Zero's voice, sharp and harsh. It caused the others to back up and get prepared to fight again. "I nearly had this boy under my complete control years ago, but I lost and he stole half my soul."

"You," Zero managed to say, trying to drive it away. "I don't have anything of yours."

"Don't lie! I am Omega, known to you as the Fire Dragon. I will have my soul back. If you do not give it up willingly, my sword Firingi will devour your life energy slowly, seeking to kill you. And once you die, you will belong completely to me."

"The Fire Dragon?" Sandy asked. "I thought you guys defeated it."

Waiting a moment, Zero didn't feel Omega's presence anymore. Firingi was still latched to him, although constrained by the scarf. "We drove it out of my body," he said. "But he's come back, as that vampire people talk about. I had been trying to avoid this."

"In a way, you are lucky," the ice wizard said. She pointed back to the city. "Lunesk has many who are qualified to handle situations like this. Let's head back and find someone to help you."

Iris came closer to him, although not too close. "You can resist it long enough for that, I'm sure," she said warmly.

* * *

Zero didn't know what the others were going to do about Firingi. He wasn't allowed to participate in the discussion. Which was a good thing. The sword's mind occasionally overtook his own and tried to talk other people into taking the silk binding off him. He'd nearly talked a hotel employee into doing it, but Sandy caught him in time. After he explained that they were dealing with a captive demon, the sword called Sandy a villainous narrow-minded moron. His friend just shook his head and stood guard to make sure the demon didn't con anyone else.

Now Zero was locked in a smaller room in the hotel, not knowing how things would work out. Someone had secured thick black curtains on the windows so he couldn't see outside. He sat on the couch with his hand still tied up. The flames occasionally flickered out from under the scarf, but the sword would not appear while he was tied up like this.

Many of the devices in the room had been deactivated. There was a water dispenser and a plastic cup, as well as a small bathroom near the door. That was all that worked. He was ambidextrous, but having his right hand secured so tightly made things tricky.

Not quite an hour into his wait, Iris came into the room. The door was shut (and locked) behind her. She smiled at him. "How are you doing?"

"Okay for now," he said. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"No. But I will tell you that you have to fast."

He nodded. Then he felt an old familiar feeling: the feeling that another mind was in control of his body. But this wasn't the honorable soul of his mirror. "I can do it so long as you're near." He could, but those weren't his words.

"It'll be three days. You have nothing to worry about."

"Are you going to visit me?"

"Yes, as often as I can."

"Good." He smiled. "Are you going to kiss me?"

Zero felt alarmed. A demon's kiss was dangerous, even in possession. But he could tell he was not in control of his body in the least. He softly thought, don't kiss me.

She gave him a sly smile. "I know my darling from a demon, Firingi."

Good. Zero felt happy.

Firingi wasn't happy. He glared at Iris. "I will make you suffer someday, maid."

"My Zero will protect me. I came to encourage him." She got a drink from the water dispenser and drank some. "You haven't gotten to see my plays yet, but I'll sing you an appropriate song." She took a moment to gather her thoughts and ready her voice. Then she sang Miranda's love for Teo while he was possessed by the Bloody Sword.

Zero thought her voice was the most beautiful in the world.

* * *

X shivered. "A coldness keeps coming to me," he told his guide.

"Your soul brother is being tested," he explained. "Do you wish to speak with him?"

X closed his eyes and felt the coldness. Something was wrong with Zero. If this was a test, it was a difficult one. "I…"

"You can if you wish."

"I trust him. There is still some happiness and joy, so it can't be terrible. He can handle it himself."

His guide nodded. "This test of his may end in his death, of the soul."

He looked at his guide. "This test of mine may end in my soul being lost, never being able to return to reality."

"You can always turn back, to help your friend or if you have doubts."

"I trust him. And myself. But we will have much to speak about, when I return."

His guide moved ahead. "There are thousands of worlds in existence, you know. The two you have seen, yours and the mirror history you just visited, they are just two in a near infinite multitude."

"Was it just a lucky chance that I was able to call them? Or is world travel easier than I thought it was? This dream travel is not hard."

"World travel can have disastrous consequences. The other world ceased to exist shortly after the time you saw."

"I see."

"It was not your interventions that destroyed that world. You will now view a third world, another possible life you could have lived. Watch carefully and learn."

X nodded as the dream world shifted.

* * *

World TY-2087

It was early morning. X was awake. He went down the side stairs, past the first floor. He went to the second basement and paused there. The door was locked, but he felt someone beyond. Stretching up on his tiptoes, he tapped the panel. It unlocked.

A few doors down, he found a man in a wheelchair. He came into the room. "Grandpa?"

Thomas smiled at him. "X, you sly little boy." He hugged him, making him laugh. "I'll have to find some way to keep the locks from letting you in."

"Did you work all night again? Aunt Roll doesn't like that."

"I know. Don't worry; I'm just getting started. And what about you? You start school today."

"Yeah. I hope I'll do okay."

"You're going to do great, I know it. You read so much and you know a lot already. You'd just better not go into locked areas like you do here."

X smiled, although still nervous. "I won't. But there might be mean people there, like in some of my books."

"Adrian will be with you. He won't let anything happen to you; I'm certain of that."

"But what if my dad comes home while I'm at school? When's he coming back?"

Thomas put his hand on his grandson's shoulder. "Don't worry about your dad. He'll come back to you. He just has important things to do now in the war against Master Wily."

"But what if he doesn't come back?"

"Rock is very powerful. I trust him. Don't you?"

"I trust dad. But I had one of those dreams."

"Again? What did you see this time?"

X spread his hands out. "A black sky with red clouds. An angelic predator comes down dressed in black. When he strikes, no one can stop him. He is Death, and he comes for one I know."

"I see. Any idea who the premonition is for?"

He shook his head. "No. I want to see dad again."

"That is a concern. Death is natural. There's nothing that can be done for it if your vision gives no clues."

"I have to go to school. Be careful, grandpa. Watch out for winged predators."

"I will."

* * *

The reploid children were all in one class, as there were only six of them. At recess, they joined the human children in play. X was crawling over a jungle gym, pretending he was crawling over shark-infested waters. He couldn't slip, not one bit.

A human boy shoved him, causing him to slip through the hole. He clung to the bar, willing his imaginary sharks to be interested in the bully over him. "Hey!"

"Watch it, you doofus," the other boy said. He stuck his tongue out as X.

X imagined the sharks biting the boy hard.

"Leave my little cousin alone, dork, or I'll mess you up!" Adrian said sternly. He was six years old, but only three and a half feet tall. Although some of the younger reploids were taller than him, he was intimidating in his own fashion.

"I'm just teasing him."

Adrian put his hands on his hips and glared. His glares could scare adults. "Nobody teases X, got that?"

"Let's not get into a fight the first day of school," one of the teachers said, putting her hand on Adrian's shoulder and giving the human boy a hard look.

"Fine," they both said.

X put the imaginary sharks and sea away and dropped to the ground. "Thanks. That was close."

Adrian smiled warmly at him. "What were you up to?"

He put his hands on the jungle gym's bars, but stayed inside. "I escaped a bunch of sharks. Tricked them into biting a pirate's butt off."

His cousin claimed to be too old for make-believe, but never bothered X for it. "That pirate must be so embarrassed now."

X grinned. "Yeah." Then he put on a serious face. "I was looking for a Crystal Sphere, but it wasn't on the pirate ship."

"What's the Crystal Sphere for?"

He gripped the bars so tight that his knuckles turned white. "There's a winged predator coming. If I can find the Crystal Sphere, we'll be okay. If not, Death will come as a winged predator."

"You can just cut the wings off a predator like that."

"Adrian, the Crystal Sphere isn't make believe," X whispered. "Death is coming."

He looked concerned, but unsure if this was yet another of X's games or yet another of X's visions. "Death?"

"X!"

His eyes went wide. Then he got out of the jungle gym. "Dad!"

Rock ran onto the playground. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. X ran up and his father hugged him. "I'm sorry, but it's too powerful."

"What are you talking about?" Adrian said. "Nothing's too powerful for you."

Then one of the little girls screamed. Everyone but Rock looked up at the sky, rapidly filling with red clouds and turning black. A winged figure appeared in the center of the chaos.

X paled. "Death comes for our world…"

* * *

May 22, XX68

Lunesk

Iris came to sing for him several times a day. She usually sang one song and then left so the demon's aura didn't overwhelm her. Zero wondered how bad it was, given she did that. He felt sick inside and every time she came in, Firingi pushed him out of his mind's control. But bound as he was in Zero's body, he couldn't do anything other than speak insults, attempt deception, and glare.

Three days of waiting done, Iris came into his room, alone as usual. But they didn't lock the door this time and she had a black cloth and an elf translator earring with her. "You must be blindfolded to go where we are going."

"May you burn in hell," Firingi said. But Zero asserted himself strongly and stood still while she tied the blindfold on him.

Iris guided him out of the hotel room. Once he stepped out, two people took hold of his arms. Probably Sandy and a local Guardsman, he figured. Zero mentally fought with Firingi to keep quiet. Both were tired from fasting and being shut in a hotel room. Zero was slightly more alert in that Firingi had controlled him most of the time, so he was able to control his body now. Quietly, he allowed himself to be led somewhere.

Then, to his surprise, he heard X. _"Priestess Clymesta, the child of spring, the friend of Adrian has come for healing."_

Next it was… himself? " _Three of his friends come in love so he may be well."_ Oh, that would be Neko, which meant the other was probably Xenophon, not X.

Clymesta spoke, " _The one who bound him, bring him up here and let him go."_

Iris said, "Yes, priestess." She took Zero's arm and guided him up some steps. "Kneel, please," she whispered.

Zero nodded and did as she said. Firingi didn't like it, but was restrained in this particular spot. Iris removed his blindfold first, then began unwrapping his wrist.

This building, a temple most likely, was made of crystals and glittered like cut diamonds. Priestess Clymesta was a White Fairy; she wore a beautifully embroidered silk gown, befitting an honored priestess. She had a diamond tiara, diamond earrings, diamond necklace, and diamond bracelets. At least it appeared that way. Fairies were talented in making things seem what they weren't.

Neko and Xenophon were behind her, acting as guards. He didn't get to wonder long about how they had managed to get involved. Once the scarf was undone and Iris had stepped away, Firingi appeared as it had when Zero first saw it. But in this space, the demon sword was restricted in what it could do. Zero kept it down.

" _How did it get on you?"_ Clymesta asked.

"It approached me intent on possessing me. I was not prepared to deal with a demonic sword. we had heard it was a quiet day and didn't expect much trouble. Firingi used a previous possession to gain the upper hand against me easily."

" _What was your earlier possession like?"_

"I was two years old and ignorant that I was doing anything wrong. Wily's heir manipulated me and made me willing to accept possession by the Fire Dragon."

" _That is Omega, lady Clymesta,"_ Xenophon said. " _His blade is named Firingi."_

" _I see."_ Clymesta landed on Firingi. The sword hissed in complaint. _"Now the threat of eternal summer hangs over us. An endless summer would turn our world to desert instead of tundra, perhaps even deadlier."_

" _It would be a summer of shadows,"_ Xenophon mused, " _when the undead overtake the living. Such a curse must be avoided, as soon as possible."_

Zero listened to all this. "Omega wants my soul, perhaps my body as well. We were one and a half souls in one body until Rihanna's fire purified me. He believes I hold the other half of his soul, but he doesn't realize that he is underdeveloped."

" _Which is why he steals the souls of others,"_ Xenophon reasoned. " _Perhaps the endless summer is not so close. Fire Dragon Omega cannot put that curse into play until he is a complete soul. So long as Zero lives, autumn will always follow summer."_

" _In that case, we must remove his sword from your soul,"_ Clymesta finished. _"Has he fasted for three days?"_

"He has," Iris said.

" _Good. Then we shall begin the exorcism."_

After she said they were beginning, Zero's awareness dropped to a sleep like state. He felt Firingi leave him. Three shadow elves appeared to Zero's half-asleep mind. _"I hate this light,"_ one said.

" _We must get the master's sword before they lock it,"_ another said.

" _We must get the soul of our master too,"_ the third said.

" _No, not now. Not in this light."_

" _Omega will be angry."_

The three shadow elves took the sword away and returned to their master.

* * *

May 23, XX68

"Zero?"

He opened his eyes and saw Iris looking at him. She smiled. He smiled back. He was on a white bed. A nice breeze came from behind him. "Hi Iris."

She touched his face. "Good, you'll be okay. I hoped you would wake up before we left."

"You're going?"

"I have to be back home in two days. There's an audition for a big show coming up that my agent wants me to be in. It'll be fierce competition for the part, so I can't delay. I'm sorry."

He took her hand. "That's fine. I hope you get that part."

"Then you'll come see me on stage?"

"I'll do what I can."

"I understand. You and all the others are protecting our peace. But it will be much harder to be without you now."

"I know. I'll write as often as I can."

"I will too. And try to call sometimes, okay?"

"Sure."

"Sandy and Ash are leaving with me to rejoin their patrol. Clymesta says you need a few more days in recovery, then she'll send some elves to watch over you to Rydia. If you're lucky, you can talk one into bonding with you."

"That'd be good. So may I have a kiss now?"

"Of course." And she kissed him goodbye.

* * *

May 24, XX68

He slept for most of that day. When he woke up, there was usually a nurse elf attending to him. The next day, he was able to get up and explore. At least the building he was in, but that was good. He met with Xenophon and Neko while he was eating lunch.

"How did you become an elf?" Zero asked.

" _I was born that way_ ," Neko said. " _What'd you think, silly?"_

" _Be polite,"_ Xenophon said. _"Neko here isn't exactly the Neko you knew. This one is a yearling."_

" _I'm thirteen months old."_

"So what happened to your old friend?"

Xenophon's wings twitched. _"Before I tell you that, you ought to know something. We are the spirits that X called."_

"You are?" Zero scratched his head. "Wait, so you came when X called,"

" _Yes."_

"And you came five years before that?"

" _It was over a hundred years later for us. X came back to our world to rescue us from the destruction of our world. But we had forgotten by then, because we were caught in a time loop. X gave a crystal to us in our world, and we gave it back to him thirteen years ago. He should be giving it to us right about now by going to our world."_

" _How do you know he's going to give it to you now?"_ Neko asked.

" _Because he already gave it to us."_

" _That's still confusing."_

"I think I get it. In that case, thank you again for helping us that time."

" _You're welcome."_

"What about the older Neko?"

Xenophon chimed in laughter. " _Well, my friend was renamed for another Neko… but I know who you mean."_ He put his hands on his knees. His aura became blue toned. " _We went to go investigate the Fire Dragon soon after he awoke. The Shadow Master had taken him, so we went into the Palace for what was supposed to be a short run. But Omega… the Fire Dragon, he caught us there. I was given over to the shadow elves and Neko was turned into a blood thrall."_

"A blood thrall? But doesn't that take a Type 1 vampire to make a thrall?"

He nodded. " _And Omega is that now, along with being the Fire Dragon."_

"That can't be good." Zero mentally reviewed the information from his classes. "I guess you weren't able to rescue Neko in time to turn him back."

" _I couldn't. I was trapped by lead."_

The elf Neko's wings shivered. " _Nasty poison, lead. Especially to elves."_

Xenophon sighed. " _I had to kill him, actually. He'd been completely enslaved to Omega's blood, so nothing would save him. I managed to get out before I was corrupted too. So I came here. I knew Clymesta and I knew I'd find sympathetic company here. Then, a little over two years ago, I was asked to watch over a group of fairy eggs."_

" _I was there!"_

He patted Neko's shoulder. " _Of course you were. It's a shared duty, raising the infants to independent yearlings. I figured I would just be taking care of the fifteen eggs, and that would be it. As their caretaker, I had to be there for the hatching, and then he was born."_

" _I know this,"_ Neko said. _"I was born exactly like your old friend, with his name and everything."_

" _I named you. Anyhow, Clymesta told me it was an auspicious birth, since he copied Neko so closely, he happened to be in the egg group I was caring for, and he was born a holy elf. We're not certain if he is a reincarnate of Zero from my world, but I asked to raise him anyways."_

" _I'm auspicious."_

Zero chuckled at the young elf's enthusiasm. It wasn't like the quiet and serious Neko he knew from before, but perhaps the reincarnation changed him enough.

" _Now that you know,"_ Xenophon said, _"I have something I'd like you to have. Please take good care of it."_

He watched a sparkle of light appear as the older elf summoned his item. It was the handle of a rune blade. Just at a glance, Zero could tell it was a masterwork of a weapon. "This?"

" _This is Zetsabre, my friend's weapon. Neither I nor Neko here have any use for it. But you know of your mirror soul and I felt you would best appreciate this weapon. It's had a long history, but it never failed Zero."_

"Then I'll have to be very careful with it." He picked the handle up and examined it. It may have been old, but it was well maintained. He got the casing opened and looked over the inner works. As soon as he could get to a lab, he'd have to check its magic resilience.

Because it was a definite that he could not break this weapon.


	46. White Wizard X

September 3, XX68

Rain splashed against the train windows and streamed down, blurring the world outside. X looked at the water. Where was it going? To a lake, underground, to the sea? So many possibilities. But in order to be here, it had to have been taken from somewhere else. Receiving meant taking… supply was finite.

He felt a signal from the car ahead. Someone was in trouble. Did he really want to? No, he had to. Help those in need, that was part of the oath. The oath was more a guide than anything, but still, if it was in his power, he should help.

He got out of his seat and walked into the next car. There was a man suffering a heart attack. The train only carried a nurse for emergencies and this one was limited in what he could do. "I'll do what I can," he told the conductor, "but do we have a doctor who can help more on board?"

"Not to my knowledge."

I'm a white wizard, X thought. Then he recalled, he was no longer under solitary rules and no one around could hear such thought-speech. He concentrated and spoke, "I'm a white wizard."

The nurse looked at him, at his wizard robes, at his strange glowing eyes, and at his aura. This confirmed what he said. "Okay, I'll help however you need it."

"Take notes of what I say, for his regular doctor." X knelt by the man and put his hand on the man's chest. First order of business was to get his heart back to normal by solving the immediate problem. He began reciting blood pressure, heart rate, breathing capacity, anything out of the ordinary or possibly related. The nurse faithfully took notes on a pad of paper.

The problem, he soon realized, was a clot close to the heart. That was a simple problem for him to solve; he dissolved the clot, then made sure the release didn't worsen the situation. In terms the doctor should know, he recited that to the nurse, then made him read it back to make sure he had it down right. It was important.

Next for the cause of a clot there. He passed his hand over the man's body, searching. The immediate problem gone, the victim tried to get up. "Thank you, sir."

"Stay down," X said. "I'm still working."

Finally, he tracked the problem down to another clot in the left leg. He dissolved that one, but knew the original problem was likely to return.

"Your cholesterol is unbalanced," he told the man. "And you should have other exams done, for your body feels poorly nourished. Take my notes to your regular doctor for a long-term solution. Otherwise, this could happen again."

"Thank you so much. You saved my life."

X took the sheet the nurse had written on and signed it officially. "You should rest until your stop."

"I'll help you back to your seat, sir," the nurse said, as he helped the victim up. But as he did, he yawned.

X stood up and noticed a number of people in the car yawning or nodding off. He went back to his seat, tired himself. In that car, some were already sleeping.

The supply is finite, X remembered as he sat in his seat. He quietly searched the auras mingling on this train, but it seemed everyone was tired. Nobody was harmed from this healing. But it could happen, a voice warned in his head. If the heart attack had gotten much worse, someone else on the train could have been in danger.

X put his head against the window and watched the rain. It was a gray depressing rain. And if the man had been in danger of dying immediately… someone would have died. That could happen as a result of his healing. X had never imagined that his healing powers could have such fatal consequences. But he knew; ever since he had received his latest spell, he could kill one trying to heal another.

* * *

"Station Monsteropolis Two," the intercom stated. "Repeat, we have reached Station Monsteropolis Two."

X stirred himself and stood up. He pulled his luggage out from under his seat. The conductor came by, now awake on caffeine pills. He was making sure everyone who needed to get off was awake and getting off. "I know it's late. Thank you for riding the World Rail System, please come back for your next trip."

X left the train with dozens of others. The station was crowded. They had said a specific area… and there they were. His father, aunt, and uncle, Zero (with not one, but two elves), Sandy, Ash, and Iris were there to greet him. "Hello everyone."

"Welcome back, X," Rock said, hugging him.

"You have trouble coming back?" Blues asked.

"Yeah, we got slowed down for an hour. Sorry, but I'm really tired."

"That's fine, you're back home," Roll said.

* * *

September 4

The next day, they went out to see Iris in her latest play. Zero seemed captivated by her every time she was on stage. In fact, any time she was in the same room as him, his attention was on her, and visa versa. It was as X thought. Years of friendship had turned into romance. But he wasn't sure what was ahead for them.

"Could you do a reading on us?" Iris said once, obviously curious and hopeful.

"At this point, asking me wouldn't be a good idea," X said. "You should ask an oracle who doesn't know you as well as I do. That will give a more accurate reading."

His friends and family asked how his training went, but he couldn't answer those questions either. If he could, it was in a limited fashion. Some things he simply couldn't tell the uninitiated. Others, he wasn't sure he wanted to talk about yet.

In the evening, he and Zero went into X's old room and talked. It was mostly Zero talking of Iris. It was like he was happier about being back with Iris than seeing X again. "I'm sorry," Zero said, when he finally seemed to realize he was rambling and X was being silent. "I just… I've been so strange since I told her I loved her. I can't get her out of my head."

"That's fine, I understand."

"I don't know about that. I'm in love, and…"

"And it's so heady, being in your first romance, that being even this close to her is enough to make you giddy and seem drunk, in a way."

He smiled. "Yeah. I just… I wasn't sure if you've never felt this before."

"I haven't, of course. I've lived in isolation most of these years. Well, isolation from the living."

"You've only had ghosts and my thoughts for company all this time."

"Just that. There were days when I sat with a ghost and let them talk about their life. It helped them; many of them were able to find their way after speaking to me. And nearly all of them spoke of first love and the madness that accompanies it."

Zero laughed. "I guess it could be a madness."

"I was wondering, though, why two elves are with you."

"Oh them, yeah… they must have slipped off to leave us alone to talk."

"You bonded to one of them?"

"Yes, I did, and I got a decent blade. Get this; my bond partner is Xenophon."

"Xenophon? But he's Neko's bond partner."

"And he's also the older spirit that came to you when we were three."

"Really, he's that one? I sensed he was an older mirror, back then, but I didn't think that he was the one within me too. So what about Neko?"

"He might be the younger one, reincarnated. They're not sure."

"Oh." X thought. "Did they get in trouble with the vampires?"

"They did… you knew about that?"

"Yeah, I suggested it to my dad, who asked them to go investigate. I wondered why I didn't hear from them after."

"The White Fairy Clymesta said that Neko should become your bond partner."

"She did?"

"Yes. She's the one who put me and Xenophon together."

"Well… I don't know if I'm ready."

Zero looked curious. "You're not ready? But elf partners are a good thing. My missions have gotten much better ratings since Xenophon teamed up with me."

"I know that. But, well…" he glanced around. "You've noticed, I've been quiet today and yesterday."

"Yeah, and it's not just because you've been silent for over six years."

"There is that. But I've also been in the company of ghosts for six years. Even when I went out for supplies, the ghosts were there. As time went on, I had a hard time connecting with the living. And I felt time differently. Or I feel it different… see? I'm not used to normal life. I need some time to settle, to relearn life. It would be a bad time for me to bond now."

"Oh, I see. You'll have to tell Neko that. He's been waiting for you."

"He may be able to sense it. I'll speak with him later."

* * *

Later came the next morning. X got up before dawn, as he had for the past six years. He recited silent prayers; it might be a good idea to keep the habit up. Neko slipped in the room and sat on the bedpost. X finished his prayer, then looked at the elf. He did look a lot like Zero, but with white armor and a gold cross. And those faint angelic wings that glistened like jewels.

 _"You're not ready for me yet?"_ Neko asked. He sounded disappointed.

"No. I need to rework my mind. You'll agree, I'm sure, that it would be a bad time for us to bond now."

_"I guess. But when you're ready, I'll be waiting."_

"I'll try not to make you wait long."

* * *

September 5, XX68

Sigma had joined the Field Patrol nine years ago and had instantly been recognized as a talented leader. He went through command training in a record three years; he went through commando training in another three years. Now he was leading Squad 19, a star battle squad that had just been named one of the top ten units. But his oath to the Patrol was a sham, as was 19's loyalty.

His second was Vile, a strong warrior and a loyal companion. His strategist was Serges, a brilliant counterpart that strengthened Sigma's own strategies. His diversionary master was Dynamo, a swordsman who managed to combine flamboyant style and substance. His stealth master was Lumine, a quiet but philosophical fighter who now respected Sigma greatly. Rounding out the team were Agile, Violen, Raitzen, and Laudo. All of them were members of the secretive RFF. Four were second generation of the Wily clan. And none of them believed the Field Patrol was without conspiracy.

Sigma had told his men, three days ago, that he was going to speak with Gate. They needed to link up Gate and his children to Squad 19 for their plans. Which was on his agenda, but that wasn't the main reason he had gotten away, alone. Although he firmly believed in the RFF ideology and the Wily clan's claim to the world, he did have a secret that went against those basic ideals. Everyone knew the main secret. Sigma was the offspring of a reploid-human coupling. Everyone in the RFF knew that Sigma hated his father for various reasons. But no one guessed that his claim of hating his brother was completely false. No one had guessed that Roger was still important to him.

He came to the private hospital where both David and Roger were, but ignored his father. Instead, Sigma went straight to Roger's room. David, as a publicly important figure, was in a prominent room, watched over by guards, and had much of the staff watching over him. But Roger wasn't in the spotlight. He worked as a computer engineer. Probably the only reason he was even here was because of their father. Roger was in a quiet room in back, with no guards, and one nurse watching him. Hopefully Sigma's visit would go by unnoticed.

Roger was lying in bed. His skin looked sickly yellow. He was breathing with a respirator. But the corners of his lips smiled as he saw Sigma sitting by him. "Little brother."

Sigma squeezed his hand. "Hey big brother. I'm sorry it took me so long."

"It's okay," Roger's attention drifted for a while. "You've made us proud, serving the world in the Field Patrol."

He felt a pang of hypocrisy; Roger had no idea Sigma belonged to such a radical group. But he believed in them. He believed it was right for reploids to rule humans, by any means necessary. But Roger… Roger was probably the reason Sigma hadn't done anything violent yet. Some humans were good. "I do what I can."

"Did you see father yet?"

"Yes," he lied.

Roger chuckled, but it turned into a wet sounding cough. "Sorry. Now don't you lie to me. I know you haven't."

"Sorry Roger, but he… he just doesn't know me. He doesn't know us."

Surprisingly enough, Roger nodded. "I know," he said softly. "He's a good man; he does a lot for many people. But he works on broad scales. He doesn't know the specifics. He doesn't know us. And he doesn't seem to realize the truth."

Sigma felt puzzled. He could recall Dynamo saying the same thing to him, after the long winter had ended and he had truly begun to question his place in life. "The truth?"

"He's trying to cure us, but there's no cure for this. We're going to die. I'm glad you came today."

"Isn't there anything that can be done? I came here hoping…"

"It's okay, little brother. I've settled my business here, except that I've been worried about you. I'm not sure what it is. Is there anything wrong in your life? Tell me, if there is. We'll never speak again."

Did he suspect Sigma being with the RFF? What should he say?

After a minute of silence, Roger gripped Sigma's hand, with what little strength he had. "If you're going to do something, you need to erase the doubts in your mind."

"Roger?"

"Your soul is fighting, I know. You must decide, one way or the other. Or find a third way, if your options are equally bad. I don't know what's going on in your life, but I know you've been keeping something from me. You must have your reasons."

"I'm sorry, Roger. It's business with the Field Patrol."

"Ah. I trust you on that."

Was there still time for Sigma to get out of the RFF? Perhaps he should try.

"Sigma, you must know," Roger clenched his teeth. "I hope I have time."

"What is it?"

"We were attacked by reploid vampires. Reports are coming in from various parts of the world: vampires are attacking humans and reploids alike. Many are killed, but there is one special vampire."

"Tell me. I'll ask around the Patrol, see what I can do about it."

Roger looked up at the ceiling, remembering. "He was a wonder, I remember that. Shining gold hair, an armor to fit royalty… do you remember that one boy? Zero, and the lifeless reploid in the museum that looked just like him? The vampire was the reploid from the museum."

"Who would bring him to life?" Sigma thought of the Wily clansmen, but couldn't say that.

"That can't be known now. But what is becoming known is that any human bitten by the lead vampire Omega dies in forty days. And any reploid bitten will recover, but has a chance, in forty days, of becoming a vampire. Omega bit me, dad, and mom."

"And mom?"

"They aren't listening to me. Sigma, please; if you do nothing else for me, watch over our mother tonight. If she is normal when dawn comes, she is fine. But if she becomes a vampire, she will become mad and kill anyone in the area. Watch her, and if she does become, she is no longer our mother. In that case, please kill her before she kills anyone."

"Roger, I promise, I'll make sure she is safe."

"Good. I'm sure you'll succeed at whatever you do. Make the world a better place; that would be a good legacy to leave behind."

"I'll remember."

Roger died fifteen minutes later; his death was blessedly swift compared to the four hours spent trying to save David Cain. Sigma left after Roger was gone from this world.

* * *

The last of the sun's rays were disappearing from the sky. Sigma watched from a balcony off the living room. Last time he was here, just before he entered the FP, he silently swore he would never to return. But now he was back.

The door opened. Sigma went to the entry hall. Zeta had returned alone. "Mother, I'm sorry, but I tried to get off as soon as I could."

She smiled, but was openly sad. "Sigma darling, you're back." She hugged him and started crying.

"What is it? How are they?"

"They're dead."

Sigma held his mother stoically. He didn't care for his father anymore, and he would only mourn Roger in secret. But what about his mother, with a dark sentence over her waiting to be carried out?

Zeta spoke distractedly about going to sleep, about funeral arrangements, about the past, her mind here, there, and everywhere. Sigma waited and watched, speaking with her in hopes the vampire curse would not strike her. While in RFF company, he spoke of her betraying him while being blind to her husband's motives. But here, with her distraught and a dark threat hanging close, Sigma wished nothing bad would befall her tonight. He still loved his mother as he loved his brother.

The night went on. Dawn grew close. Sigma felt more hopeful as the hours went on. Perhaps everything would be all right.

Zeta touched his head. "I wish you'd let me fix your physical coding," she said. "You had the loveliest hair as a child; it's hard to see you bald now."

"It's fine, mom," he said. "I like this."

"I suppose." She wandered off into kitchen. Sigma followed her in time to see her lean against the cabinet, then slip on a loose towel.

He caught her. "Are you okay? You don't look well."

"I feel a little sick. Maybe I should lie down."

"You should. I'll take you back to your room."

"Mm, thank you Sigma."

He supported her upstairs to the master bedroom. The aura around her seemed different, he thought. Sigma hadn't studied magic enough to know what he was feeling, but he instinctively didn't like it. He made sure his weapon was close; he might have to use it soon. "Do you need me to get you some medicine or something?"

"You had such pretty hair as a child," Zeta said, brushing her hand across his chin. "Made your eyes seem warmer and less harsh."

"You need sleep." He set her on the bed and started to leave. He could watch from the hall.

She grabbed his hand. "No, Sigma, I loved you best." She giggled. "Oh, it feels nice to admit that. The other boys were nice, but you were always my darling Sigma."

"Mom, get some rest. I'll take you to the hospital in the morning."

"But darling, you need to meet Master Omega. You could be much more."

Swiftly, Sigma drew his rune blade and activated it right into his mother's power core. "I'm sorry, but you're no longer my mother."

Zeta looked stunned. And then she laughed in a creepy way. "That won't stop me. You just wait; I'll get what I want."

Sigma had heard of the reploid vampires, but never thought they were true dark magic. "What are you?" He tried to attack her again, this time through her brain.

She ran for the master bathroom. Sigma went after her. She hurriedly recited, "Reflector of the world's sorrows and woes, Reflect me to the Palace of Shadows."

Just as Sigma got in, the bathroom mirror had turned black. Zeta turned into a red light and then vanished into the mirror. It returned to normal.

He touched the mirror, just to make sure. But the demoness who stole his mother's body was gone.

* * *

September 6, XX68

"Hello Iris," a soft voice said behind her.

She wasn't expecting that in her mother's grocery store. She turned, startled. But it was only X. "Be careful when you sneak up on people." She laughed off her nervousness. "I might have dropped something."

X smiled. "Sorry," he said, still quieter than normal speaking tones.

"And you could speak up a bit."

"I'm still getting used to normal society," he said, now in normal tones. "How are you doing today?"

"Fine. I've got another performance tonight, so I'm taking care of things. And then Zero is taking me out tonight. He's so sweet."

"I'd imagine so. Iris, I have something I need to speak with you about."

"What is it, X?"

He took something out of his pocket. "Things are becoming dangerous, if they aren't already. The Fire Dragon is seeking Zero and I, which makes you a target. If Zero were here with you, I wouldn't worry. But since you are going to be staying here, I want you to have this."

She took the necklace. Attached to it was a piece of amber. There was a small clover in the amber, still looking as green as it must have in life. A fine gold thread was tied into a knot to secure it to the clasp. "That's beautiful. Are you sure you should be giving it to me?"

X blushed. "Oh, no, it's nothing like that. You're my friend; I want to see you safe. This is a special amulet that will protect you. I found many pieces of amber at the temple and learned how to polish them. It's a very powerful material. And this is a hair from Zero attached here."

"That's one of Zero's hairs? You managed to get it to look small."

"I braided it to itself to shorten it. You usually don't have that much trouble with length. They're usually too short for this."

"Can't say that about his. Thank you X. I'll keep it on me."

"Good. Then you should be fine."

* * *

September 8

Gate welcomed him graciously and led him to the study to talk. They discussed getting an active strike together, which meant they had to do something about Shield Sheldon, the one Gate clan member who left the RFF to authentically be in the Field Patrol. Perhaps an accident or a brutal fight was called for. Sigma no longer was a friend to Sheldon. He was too soft on humans. Although Sheldon had wanted to save Roger from the RFF. If only Roger had been a reploid too…

And just as he thought that, Gate said, "I have heard there's been a… tragedy in your family. They tried so hard."

"It was hopeless," Sigma said. "They were attacked by Omega, the master of the reploid vampires. Those undead monsters are good for something, at least."

Gate smiled. "And it got rid of David Cain. I would toast the vampires, if I didn't know they were insane."

"How much do you know of them? My mother was turned into one."

"She was? Now that is a tragedy." This he spoke without sarcasm.

"I tried to stop her. Once she became a vampire, she was no longer my mother, just a monster. I put my blade right through her core. Right through. But she just laughed and escaped by a mirror."

"You tried. But you are right; Zeta is now a monster."

"So what do you know of them? I have heard Omega is the shadow of Zero. You know, the stillborn Wily clansman from the museum."

"I've heard that too, and it seems reliable. That would make things seem as if the reploid vampires are yet another creation of that mad human. But I don't know… something seems off and I can't quite think of it."

"The vampires are killing off the humans," Sigma said. "But they leave many reploids alive. We know Wily wished to rule the humans and that he enslaved his own reploids to keep them in line. So the vampires don't fit his methods."

Gate nodded. "Then again, his methods have changed ever since Rock defeated him in the Tower. We don't know what he's thinking. And that," he shook his pen at Sigma, "is precisely our main problem."

"Wily is our main problem? How so?"

"Our organization has relied on the Wily clan. We started because of them, and much of the power we think as ours is actually theirs. Think of it. King, the Dark Hunters, the weapons, the bases, they all came from Albert Wily at some point. And think of all the second generation of Wily reploids in our group, even within your key circle. One of my kids is actually descended from a Wily clansman, but I haven't told any of them. There's been many signs, especially from the defector Forte, that Dr. Wily is alive and operating his army. And if we don't know for certain what he's thinking, chances are we are in his manipulating hands as well." Gate shook his head. "That drives me crazy, but I haven't been able to talk about it yet. We are working against humankind, but we may have a human pulling our strings. He's certainly pulling his children's strings."

"I see. So he's our most dangerous foe right now, the one who's supported us."

"We are hypocrites unless we figure Wily out. We must confirm or disprove Wily's death. If he is alive, we must find out what he's thinking. And you are in the best position to find this out. You're also the only one in the RFF I trust knowing all this."

"Why do you trust me? You, your kids, and nearly everyone else have all been against me as having mixed parents."

Gate tapped his pen against his cheek. "Perhaps I do believe in destiny and the stars. Or perhaps I know that you have witnessed human frailty and idiocy first hand all your life. At any rate, I know that the Wily clan believes wholeheartedly in you. And I know," he said, with a lowered voice, "that the poor puppets of Wily hate their father."

"Are you kidding? They practically worship him."

"They are puppets," Gate insisted. "They have a reploid's mind, will, and soul. But they cannot make use of their own minds and wills. Their father forces them to worship him. And thus they truly hate him like you hated your own father, but they cannot do anything about it. Sometimes one will muster enough willpower to let this hatred leak out. For instance, I have spoken with Quint recently. You know him."

"Adamant follower of his father. And he hates Rock passionately, even though he is based on the elder reploid's designs."

"He seems adamant. But he told me, with great struggling, about his brother Ballade. Ballade had a child that Wily planned on killing, or enslaving. He did not want that, so he chose suicide that guaranteed his child's freedom. Quint, between spiteful insults that Ballade chose a coward's death, managed to prove to me that he greatly admired him for his sacrifice. Do you see now?"

Sigma considered it. He considered himself when he was young and admired his father. David had controlled him with false kindness and gifts. "Wily controls them by forcing his will on them… they must hate him so much."

"I have realized this. But, you see, I'm just a scientist and researcher. If I could do my research in peace, I would be happy. But you know how that is."

He nodded. Gate had been repeatedly downplayed in the scientific community because he built powerful child reploids. Too powerful, according to several outspoken individuals. Even under the guise of equality, the humans were trying to keep reploids muzzled.

"I'll be honest; I see my best prospects in supporting you and helping you come to power. Whether you think I'm honestly loyal or trying to manipulate you, that's for you to decide. But I'm giving you an open idea to consolidate the power and influence of our organization. Free the Wily reploids of their crazed father and they will be grateful. You will be able to trust their loyalty and you will have access to Wily's extensive research files. Who knows? You might be able to find something to help your mother."

There was a good chance Gate was trying to manipulate him; Sigma had already known that. But it was insights like this that encouraged him to keep Gate in close contact. "I see. Thank you for your advice. I will consider it carefully."

* * *

September 10

One of the inn guests went into diabetic shock. She was closer to dying than any patient X had so far. And X could feel it. Someone could die. Her children were here, anxious and waiting. X went to her and ended the crisis. But he didn't want to harm anyone. Perhaps if he took his own life force and used that to help her… he passed out. So the doctor that came for the guest wound up working with X instead.

"It was a sudden drop of magic in your body," the doctor said. "But it shouldn't happen in a wizard like yourself."

"No one's seen a white wizard in a long time," X replied. "I guess I need to rest for a day, right?"

He nodded. "And I want you taking extra nutrients today. I'll tell your family what they need to give you."

X went to bed, but he couldn't rest. His mind kept active, questioning. He should speak to someone about this problem, right? But who would really understand?

After an hour, Roll came in with a milkshake. "Here you go. Try to drink the whole thing."

"Thanks." He took a long drink of it. There was a slight metallic taste of medicine in it, but otherwise it wasn't bad.

"The woman you saved wants to thank you. They had no idea she had diabetes."

"She should be fine if she gets treated soon."

"But I'm afraid it wasn't just you who collapsed…"

X felt afraid. "What? What happened? Is anyone…?"

She patted his leg. "It'll be fine. Your father had some problem that made him pass out too. About the same time, oddly enough. The three of us are due for a complete checkup and upgrade soon, so we're getting that scheduled. We'll be okay."

"You be careful."

"No, you be careful. Don't overdo it; it's a magnificent power you have now, X, but if it's going to put you in danger… it's been so long, perhaps you don't fully understand what's going on."

"I think I do. But I can't speak of it."

"You can't speak of a lot, it seems."

"I learned many strange things, but the things I may not speak about, those took me all six years to study and understand. Which is why, even if I told you, you might not understand."

"I see. I've heard stories about the old white wizards, that they knew things beyond normal people, but these things were a great burden to them. Like they could tell when a stranger would die, but never ones close to them. So they discouraged their students, trying to weed out all but the most determined to know."

X nodded. "The ghosts of the monks who taught me… every day they questioned me if I wished to stay. They gave me many reasons to quit, and I could have any time. Now that I know why… I can't speak of it. But yes, knowledge of death is one of those. And I feel every death or pain around me. Power doesn't come cheap."

"I'll listen, even if I don't understand you. If you need to talk to someone, that is." When he didn't respond, Roll asked, "So are you going to be up to leaving with Zero and the other guys for the Field Patrol? Rock and Blues are staying here until they can be updated."

"I'll go with them."


	47. Resurrection

September 13, XX68

"This is going to be great," Sandy said. The four of them were on a caravan trip with the rest of Boomer Kuwanger's patrol. The patrol was being moved to another fort, while Ash and X were following until they reached a training facility. "Ash has a month left of command training left, and then he'll be put in charge of Patrol 29. It's empty right now, and we've got word that they'll let the three of us be the first ones under him."

"We'll start out as a low ranking patrol," Ash explained, "so we won't get many 'good' missions. But if we work smart and diligently, no matter what the mission, we can get higher ranks and better positions."

"You do well on your leadership tests, then," X said. "You'll make a great leader."

"And I'll be proud to have all of you on my patrol."

They talked about many subjects, even though Zero had to be dragged back on topic often. His mind kept wandering to Iris. X's mind drifted too, but he kept thinking of his plans. There was one last decision he had to make.

His choice came as he took a turn driving. Xenophon and Neko were sitting in a nook. They didn't think they were overheard, but X eavesdropped on the conversation. " _We should be bonding soon,"_ Neko said. _"I hope so, anyhow. I'm being patient."_

" _You are,"_ Xenophon said paternally. _"You'll do just fine. And if you have any questions, ask me. I'll be here, watching."_

" _I know,"_ he replied. But he sounded resentful for the close watch.

" _I'm trying to help you."_

" _You are. I'll be fine, you don't have to worry. I know what to do."_

" _I can still teach you things to better your abilities."_

" _I'll know my abilities when I get them."_

Sandy asked him something, and by the time X was able to listen in on the elves again, they had come out to chat with the other two elves. But that decided things.

* * *

There was a low whistle, catching his attention through the noisy campsite. " _Neko."_

Neko glanced at the other three elves; they were talking. He flew over to X, wondering why he'd called in the Elf language. " _What is it? Are you ready? I could get Xenophon."_ He didn't really want to, but his elder wanted to observe his bonding oath. And it was only fair; Neko had observed him bond to Zero.

X spoke in a whisper, " _You should rest now."_

" _Now?"_

" _If you wish to bond with me…"_ he glanced aside, to make sure no one was overhearing them. " _Be awake at the end of my watch. Midnight."_

" _Midnight… okay."_

" _Don't tell anyone. And you'll need to be very awake."_

Neko felt puzzled. " _Why are you being so secretive? They all know."_

" _Hush. You'll know in time."_ Then he went to help Ash with supper.

He was tired, he realized. He was still young. Although he was old enough to be independent, unlike Xenophon thought. While Neko liked Xenophon, at the moment their closeness and the elder's paternal instincts were getting on Neko's nerves. He was ready to be fully independent.

" _I'm tired,"_ he told Xenophon. " _I'm going to nap."_

" _Okay, if you need to. I'll save some dinner for you when you're ready."_

So he slept. He managed to wake up an hour before midnight. Xenophon was half-asleep. He pointed out Neko's dinner, then fell completely asleep. Neko picked up the meal: a mint leaf with honey, a piece of bread, and a walnut. He ate on a rock by X. " _What are we doing?"_

"Shh… not yet." X seemed worried for a moment, and then his emotions were covered. Neko wished they were bonded, so he could know for sure.

" _If you wish."_

They were quiet as Neko ate. As he finished, X took a shallow dish and filled it with warm water. He placed it and a sliver of soap on the rock Neko was using. "Go ahead and wash up fully."

" _X?"_

"Trust me. _And try to be done before Ash wakes up for his shift."_

" _All right, but you'd best explain later."_ Neko put his armor away and got into the dish to bathe. It had been a few days; Xenophon would ask him tomorrow. Wouldn't he be surprised to learn Neko had already taken a bath? That made him smile. If only Xenophon would acknowledge his independence.

When he was finished, he made his armor reappear. Then he sat closer to the fire to dry off and keep warm. Just as he was dry and about to ask again what was going on, X held out his hand. " _Come here. Stay close, quiet, and look like you're tired."_

Neko flew onto X's hand. _"But we're not bonded and I just slept several hours."_

" _Just look that way. This is important to me."_

" _I trust you."_ Neko flew onto X's shoulder. An elf was only supposed to be here if they were bonded to the person, or in other special cases. He hoped this was a special case. He sat down and wondered how to appear tired.

Then X shifted body position. Neko realized the problem wasn't appearing tired. It was appearing as if they were bonded. Xenophon could stay on Zero's shoulder because he knew when Zero would move, so he could keep balance. Neko had no such warnings. But why did he feel they must appear bonded? X hadn't said that… although he was implying it.

It was now midnight. Ash stirred and came from his sleeping place. His elf was actually tired and yawned from his place in one of Ash's pockets. He saw, sleepily, that Neko was on X's shoulder and gave him a smile. Then he was back in the pocket, asleep.

"Good evening," Ash said. He poured himself some coffee.

"Good evening," X replied. "I'm worn out; I'm going right to sleep."

"Sure. Any problems?"

"No, nothing." X started to get up, then pause. "Actually…"

"What?"

He shook his head. "It's not a problem, it's a vision I had for you."

"Me? I don't mind the occasional help. What is it?"

X went over and whispered something to him.

Ash turned serious when he heard. "That's it?"

"I don't know what it means, but I know you need to know that key phrase and the instructions. See you in the morning." He went to a sleeping bag in the sled. Zero was sound asleep on the other bench.

Neko flew off X's shoulder as he lay down. " _But you…"_

X put his finger to his lips. _"Stay close,"_ he whispered. Then he lay down and closed his eyes.

He glanced ahead, to where Xenophon was sleeping. His aura expanded and contracted in a slow regular rhythm. Then he felt the aura around X shift dramatically. He was casting a spell? Nervous, Neko came down and landed on X's hand.

Time Stop, Neko recognized as the spell was cast. That's why he had to be close; touching the caster kept him from being stopped. Then X got back up, cast an illusion of himself in the sleeping bag, then got out of the sled. He picked a backpack off the ground. "We'll speak in a moment," X said. Then he took off.

Neko flew after. He thought of how X was in Xenophon's stories: shy, altruistic, avoided confrontation, avoided trouble. For him to take off like this meant this was important to him.

They stopped in a grove of trees, where they were hidden from the campsite. X held out his hand and let Neko stand there. "I'll give you a choice, still."

" _I want to bond with you."_

"Listen, please." X leaned against a tree. "I'm going on a journey. I'd appreciate the company, but this will be a long hard journey. There will be a time when we may not see any other intelligent beings for days… or even months."

" _And you're not telling anyone?"_

"They would insist I not go alone. Or that I not go at all. But I have to."

" _What is it?"_

"If I tell you, and if you decide to go back to them, you must promise me you will not tell anyone, not even Xenophon or Zero, until I get back."

" _I promise. Although I will go."_

"When I became a white wizard, I was granted a special spell. It's white magic no other can learn. But it's dangerous. It's changed everything and I don't like it."

" _White magic can't be bad. Right?"_

"Any power can be abused. The White Ring is the magic of life and death. I learned Resurrection."

" _You can bring the dead to life?"_

"If the person is within the first three days of death and their corpse is in decent shape, then yes, I can bring them back to life. But… energy is finite. If I bring someone to life, another person must die instead. And I have no control over who dies."

Neko tried to look calm, but his wings shivered. " _That's harsh."_

"No, if it was simply that, I could ignore the spell and never tell anyone I have it. But in learning Resurrection, my healing powers have altered." He lowered his eyes; pale green light fell across his cheeks. "If I heal one person, I must take the energy from another source. I healed a person on the train and everyone grew tired. I healed the woman at the inn and my dad and I both collapsed. I have some control; I can take the energy from myself, which is what I did at the inn. But I don't have total control."

" _Otherwise Rock would have been okay."_

"Yes. I need to unlearn Resurrection and see about restoring my normal healing powers. Even if it means losing the powers I have gained becoming a white wizard… I can't heal like this. People will die because I chose someone else to live. It's not right. But to unlearn a potent spell like that is difficult. I must go to a special place in the Forbidden Mountains."

" _But that's where the Tower is."_

"It'll be dangerous for me; if I get caught there, they won't give me any quarter. But it's more dangerous for me to have this spell and its consequences. I have to go. I needed to warn you of these dangers. You're a young elf and your powers are still unknown. It would be much safer for you to stay with Xenophon. But I would appreciate the help."

Neko didn't have to think long on it. " _Clymesta told me I was to help you. So I will go with you, no matter what the dangers."_

X nodded. "Then you should also know… we will not be able to contact anyone on our journey."

" _But our thoughts…"_

"You're a year old, correct?" Neko nodded. "Then you are old enough to be independent. As soon as you bond, you will no longer be able to exchange thoughts and emotions with Xenophon. And my bond with Zero…" he paused and bit his lip.

" _What happened?"_

"The flaming sword divided us again," he said sadly. "He's been so infatuated with his new love that he hasn't noticed we can no longer communicate by telepathy. I hate leaving without telling him, but… we are both going through another trial with the Fire Dragon, and this time we must do it separately. I've come to understand this. Separating now will make the Fire Dragon's task more difficult. He must kill us both to gain the power of eternal summer. Zero would try to convince me otherwise, and I fear if he does, we will become weaker."

" _I understand. I think so, anyhow."_

"He's not alone. He has Xenophon to act as a final safeguard, but he will know when to intervene and when to stand down."

" _Yes. So?"_

X smiled. "If you are willing to follow me into great danger. Neko, by my honor, I promise to be your steadfast companion and caretaker, if you bond with me."

" _X, by my honor and cross, I promise to be your steadfast companion and caretaker, if you bond with me. And since we promise to the world our bond,"_

"I promise to honor this bond with the planet as my witness."

" _Then we shall be as one."_

They clasped hands to thumb and invisible connections were made.

X brought out a letter. "Here, you may write to Xenophon. Remember, this is goodbye for a long time."

" _I know."_ Neko landed on the letter and thought of what he wanted to say.

* * *

September 14, XX68

"Hey sleepyhead, get up!" Sandy yelled. He threw a can into the sled where X was sleeping.

Zero smirked. "He'll get worse abuse in training."

"No kidding." Ash yawned. "Excuse me. But I did notice; X and Neko must have bonded last night. They were talking quietly and Neko went to sleep with him."

" _Good,"_ Xenophon said. " _They'll be fine now."_

Sandy went to the sled. "Come on, you're a patrolman now…" he rapped X's helmet; X vanished under his hand. "Whoa… hey, that's a rotten trick. X!"

"What is it now?" Ash asked.

"He used an illusion to seem asleep. Hmm?" He noticed a sheet of paper in the sleeping bag and took it out. He read it. "Uh-oh… um, guys…"

"What?" Zero asked, getting impatient.

"X is gone. Here, listen."

'Don't try to come after us; you won't be able to find a trace. You don't have to worry. I know where I'm going and what I'm doing. This is a dangerous time and there is something that I must do. Beware of the Fire Dragon and the vampires. If you go to fight them, take care. Iris is fine so long as she remembers what I told her and keeps the charm I gave her. X'

"Oh, and there's a second note here… hang on…"

'I'm with X. We'll be fine. Neko'

Xenophon flew up to look at the note himself. " _Where could they be going in secret?"_ he wondered aloud.

"He gave his word he was joining the Field Patrol," Ash said.

"Not really," Zero said. "He said he would come with us… but geez, what is he thinking? Give me a minute." He closed his eyes and sent his thoughts to X. "What are you up to?"

His thoughts went out to dead silence. Zero felt disconnected. But not the same disconnection as sleeping would give. This was just plain nothing.

" _Neko's too old for me to sense now,"_ Xenophon said. _"I would have expected something sudden of him, but not X."_

Zero put his hands to his forehead. "I can't… I can't feel X."

"How can that be?" Ash asked. "Your natural connection is stronger than ours."

"Unless something split the connection," Sandy said. "But that's a rare thing to happen to a soul bond."

"We just reconnected. But… he did once say we would not be reunited until the Fire Dragon was fully dead."

* * *

"So you're back from your family's funeral," Dynamo said cheekily as Sigma walked into the room.

The other members of Squad 19 looked at Sigma for his response.

"Bloody waste of time," Sigma said. "You'd think there was a shortage of humans from all the fuss. I should have scheduled Gate's meeting a week later."

The others approved by smiling or going back to what they were doing. Everyone was a bit leery of Sigma being the leader, being from a mixed background. But if he felt that way about the funeral, it proved he was in the right place.

Dynamo was leaning his chair back, balanced precisely on one leg. "Well thanks for that terrific act. Kept your dignity and kept our secret safe for another couple of months. So when are we striking out?"

"Keep patient," Serges said. "The time is not right."

"Actually, Gate and I discussed matters. The time is right for a strike, against Dr. Albert Wily."

Dynamo nearly tipped his chair over, had Lumine not caught it. Vile paused in polishing his helmet to give Sigma a look of disbelief. Raitzen and Laudo abruptly stopped their game of poker. The others were similarly surprised, but didn't have as much attachment to the old mad scientist. "What are we doing?" Dynamo demanded. "Wily's long dead."

"He may be, he may not be. But he did leave his army in command to a human. Or rather, enslavement. You four would know, the threats you've gotten to swear allegiance or be forced to. Several of us are starting to suspect that Wily, or his replacement, is trying to manipulate our force. We can't allow a human to do that."

"How exactly are we going to strike against Wily?" Laudo asked. "We can't attack Ikari Tower; our enslaved elders would fight against us, and they vastly outnumber us. And Ikari: rumors are he is as powerful a wizard as Wily was. If he joins the fight, we'll be hard pressed to get anywhere near Wily himself, if he is still alive."

"We'll have to use subterfuge," Serges said. "They trust us now, but that means the four of you had best be loyal to the reploids and not your grandfather."

"Why would we be loyal to him?" Vile pointed out. "He's tried to strip us of our wills several times already. We've only slipped through by giving him the same lip service we give the Field Patrol."

"And it's not like he's actually done anything for us," Dynamo added.

Raitzen just nodded.

"We are going to pay a curtsey call to Wily in Ikari Tower," Sigma explained. "We have to be on our toes; if we slip up, we could all wind up enslaved, whether or not you're already a clansman. I'm working on getting this by the Field Patrol. Laudo, Lumine, I'll need your help in doing so. Serges, Vile, Dynamo, and Raitzen, you four need to find out how to reach Ikari Tower fastest and what security they have there. The rest of you, check our equipment over carefully. This is going to be a long trip."

* * *

September 19, XX68

X slept on a train. The journey to the nearest city to the Forbidden Mountains, Raishal, would take a week. Rock and Blues had taken a month to get to Fort Madeline from the mountain range, and they had had the fastest sled available at the time. He and Neko discussed maps they had of the region, which they knew were poor. They discussed texts that X had copied from old library books to the net, from which X was getting his instructions on unlearning Resurrection. They discussed supplies and equipment they would likely need. X's intent was to go as simply as possible, with the fewest supplies necessary.

But in a moment's glance, he noticed something on the train route that stirred his memory. He got off at a small port called Velspar.

Neko flew about in the fresh air for a few minutes. Then he asked, " _Why are we here?"_

"I just remembered an old promise that I should fulfill. It's been over a decade. I just hope it's not too late."

" _What promise?"_

"Do you recall River Vesper?"

" _Hmm…"_ Neko settled on X's shoulder and thought while X walked to the river. " _Oh, I remember from Xenophon's stories. You promised to come visit Valera."_

"Yes, I did. I hope she isn't hungry or in a bad mood."

River Vesper was now running smoothly and swiftly. This wasn't the same point X had met with Valera; that bridge was fifty miles north of here. But she claimed to be the guardian of the entire river. X walked alongside the river until he found a suitable area. There was a large marshy bank and no people in sight. Also, the river appeared deep in this spot.

X knelt down and drew the rune for river and the rune for dragon. Then he stood up and called in the tongue of dragons, " _Noble River Guardian Valera, if I may, I wish to speak with you."_

" _Hey, I can understand you,"_ Neko said, also in the tongue of dragons.

" _Then be polite,"_ X whispered in the elf tongue. _"This dragon was moody and violent when I met her last. I can't say how she will be now."_

The river surface upstream began to shimmer. A ripple appeared and grew into a swell. Then Valera appeared and rested her front legs on the shore. "Who are you, who knows my name and my language?"

"I am X; do you remember me? We met in the long winter, on a bridge fifty miles upstream. I've come back, as I promised. I'm sorry it took me so long."

She sniffed him. "I don't remember. The long winter was bad for my mind and soul. I think I would remember any reploid who spoke the dragon language. It's unusual."

X wasn't sure what kind of mood she was in, so he stayed careful. "I was a small child back then. You blocked our passage along the road. You commented that my traveling party was strange: myself, another reploid child, a Core Demon, and a pack of eight wolfoids."

Valera laughed. "Oh, I remember you. You were a tricky little child, with that so-called fair trade. Even if my mind was not quite whole, I must commend your wit."

"I did what I had to."

"Yes, you did. And I must apologize for treating you in such a way. That was not noble of me; I was in a desperate state, but there was no need for me to threaten you."

"I forgive you. I can understand your situation."

Valera growled, but in a way that wasn't threatening at all. It was a compliment. "I do not mind how long it took. You kept your word and have acted with honor. I don't know how you earned the language of dragons, but you deserve it."

X smiled. "I have returned to talk with you, about whatever you wish. I am not in a hurry, so however long you wish."

"I won't keep you that long. But I will honor your company. Would you join me in my home now? No harm shall come to you or your little partner."

"All right. Where is your home?"

"In the river, of course, but there is a place for land creatures to be. Climb onto the back of my neck and hold on tight. I travel fast."

X followed her instructions; Neko moved into his armor. Once X felt secure handing on to Valera's spine, she dove into the river waters. She was swift underwater. The surface light shifted rapidly and after about a minute, the water went dark. Valera started to dive. The water cooled off and the magic grew stronger. X wondered where her home was.

They came to a large cave that was lit by enchanted crystals. Valera had many things in her cave. Some were treasures, some were junk, some were just… things. They spoke for many hours; Valera spoke of her river, which most interested her, and X spoke of his quest to unlearn Resurrection. "No one else knows where we're going," he told her. "Do you know anything of the Forbidden Mountains?"

"My river has its sources in the Gungar Mountains, not the Forbidden Mountains," Valera said. "But I do know a dragon who has his river spouting from there. I would assume that you are headed for the mountain city of Arwen, and then to the holy mountain, Heaven Peak?"

He nodded. "That is where I am instructed to go. Arwen must be long abandoned."

"I wouldn't count on that. The Forbidden Mountains is a treacherous place these days, if the stories are true. Pashka tells me that ever since Ikari Tower appeared, dark creatures of all sorts have come there. Makes for good sport, but his river has darkened in the past years."

"That can't be good."

"He's not bad, not yet, but the state of the river influences the state of the dragon. You know that from knowing me. He tells me that the holy mountain is still sacred; the dark creatures won't touch it. But Arwen may be corrupted, and the paths to Heaven Peak will be perilous. I would advise you that before you enter the heart of the Forbidden Mountain range, you should seek protection from the four dragons who rule there."

"That would be helpful."

Valera nodded. "My peer Pashka guards the Melodious River. Seek him first to reach the range undetected. I shall send a sign with you that should gain you his protection with no further bother."

"Thank you."

"Tell him to escort you to Mirage Swamp. This place can fool you, but Neko should be able to see the way through. Guide X well, little fairy."

" _I will,"_ Neko replied.

"In the swamp lives an earth dragon, Talasi. She is suspicious of strangers and will likely test you before she will appear before you. Call her as you called me as you enter her swamp, and then carefully make your way through. If she approves of you, you will find the way to her cave."

"Talasi, okay."

"Once you have her blessing, ask her about the next two dragons, Audelon and Nokomis. Talasi should be able to get you to Audelon's mountain. He's a dragon of fire and moves between various volcanoes in the region. Now Audelon is ill tempered. You will have to find his shrine in whichever volcano you end up in and make an offering to him. Impress him with a gift and flattery and he should grant you his protection."

"So I'll have to win Audelon over with something. What about Nokomis?"

"She's a dragon of air; you can climb any peak, even the smaller ones, and call her name into the wind. She should come. She may ask you to do something to prove yourself. I can't say what; I don't really know her and air dragons are so flighty. But you'll want to gain Audelon's favor first, so he doesn't try exploding a mountain on you. When he gets bored, people usually get hurt."

"Okay. So I need to meet Pashka, Talasi, Audelon, and Nokomis before I try going to Heaven Peak."

"Right. I know you're a powerful youth, but having the protection of four dragons will keep the supernatural forces from overwhelming you. And it will keep them or other dragons from attacking you as well. The Forbidden Mountains is a place of darkness now, and even us dragons become affected over time."

"I know. Thank you very much for this help, Valera. I wasn't sure how to reach Arwen and Heaven Peak reliably."

"Always make friends with dragons," Valera said. "Otherwise, they will be your greatest enemies."

* * *

September 22, XX68

X and Neko finally made it to Raishal, which lay right on the Melodious River. But before they went to the river dragon, they searched the shops for an offering. " _What do we use for a dragon's offering?"_ Neko asked. _"I didn't study that sort of thing."_

"I'm not too sure," X replied. "It differs from dragon to dragon. I hope Audelon doesn't want animal sacrifices. I don't think I could bring myself to do that."

" _Maybe a treasure of gold or another precious metal… but that would be too expensive for you to get."_

"I could ask Pashka or Talasi. But I'd rather have something now in case they don't know. Hmm…" X picked up a large serving tray. It had a large mirror for the tray, with a golden frame and handles. But it was very light.

" _That's made of plastic,"_ Neko said. " _Not a good treasure."_

"Maybe not to our eyes. But think about it… we have an ill-tempered volcano guardian to flatter and win over. Since we must offer him a gift and flattery to receive protection, he must be vain. But ordinary mirrors would melt or scorch in his volcanoes. On the other hand, this plastic mirrored tray might be able to stand up to the air temperature in his home. And what would a vain volcano dragon like better than a mirror that didn't melt or warp?"

" _If there is something, we couldn't know."_

"Right. I think this will fit in my pack, if I enchant it just right. And maybe I can increase its heat tolerance."

X bought the mirrored tray for ten dollars. He bought other supplies they determined they would absolutely need. Then they spent one last night in a city.

In the morning after breakfast, the pair went to the riverbanks outside the city. Again, he found a suitable spot: large riverbank, deep water, and few people around. This spot had a rocky beach, though. X was prepared. He brought out a piece of chalk and drew the runes for river dragon. Then he stood up and called, " _Noble River Guardian Pashka, I wish to speak with you."_

This time, the dragon came from downstream. Pashka was formed similar to Valera. Only, he was smaller. Valera was fifty feet at least from snout to tail tip. Pashka was maybe thirty. His blue coloration was also darker. "Who calls me in the tongue of dragons? Oh, a reploid and a fairy."

X pulled out Valera's sign, one of her scales. "I am X Light, and my partner is Neko. We come from Valera to ask for your blessing. I'm traveling to Arwen and Heaven Peak in the Forbidden Mountains."

"Why would you want to go to that place? That range has become a nest of evil. Heaven Peak is the only sacred point within anymore."

"So Arwen has fallen?"

"Technically, no, since it's still two miles above sea level. But it is surrounded by darkness now."

"I'm a white wizard; I'm going to Heaven Peak to unlearn a dangerous spell."

"Let me guess… Resurrection."

X nodded. "Yes. I don't want to kill for my power."

"Pesky little spell, isn't it?"

"Especially since it changed all my other healing spells."

Pashka held out a clawed hand. "Give me Valera's scale."

"Okay." X placed it on the dragon's palm.

He shifted it to between two claws and seemed to examine it for several minutes. "Hmm. I see Valera respects you. I'll have to ask her why later; she's never been fond of a reploid before. But I trust her judgment. So you need my blessing, and you probably need my help to cross into the mountain range undetected."

"Valera advised me carefully on this trip. She said I should next visit Talasi in Mirage Swamp."

Pashka snuffled. "She must respect you much to send you that way. I would send you directly to Mirage Swamp if I could. However, the stream that flows from Mirage no longer flows into my river. I can place you five miles from the swamp, and then you're on your own."

"I see. I'll do my best."

"Wizard X, there are demons in the Forbidden Mountains now. They will despise you on sight and will do everything they can to torment you."

"They're the least of my worries," X replied. "In Ikari Tower, there lives a man who hated my father so much that he sent an assassin in guise of a lover, then cursed my father, and finally stole me to sacrifice to end the long winter. I ruined his plans and now he hates me as much or more than my father. But I've already accidentally harmed my father with Resurrection's power. I must get rid of it."

"Hmm… I sense you're not lying in this. If your determination is that strong, I will take you as far as I can. Take my hand."

X held onto Pashka's hand with both of his. The dragon then took a deep breath and breathed onto X. It was a strange feeling. His aura felt like a rush of water had just passed over him.

"You have my blessing and protection for your journey. I hope that it is a successful one."

"Thank you, Pashka."

"You're welcome. And you, the little one."

Neko's light brightened. " _You wish to speak with me?"_

"Yes. You have an important task to help your partner in his quest, especially in crossing Mirage Swamp. X, you cannot trust any of your senses in there. Any of them."

" _He's an oracle,"_ Neko said.

"Even that will not help guide him. You will be his sole guide. You must keep him on the safe paths and keep the malicious will'o'wisps away. But you are young; thus I will grant you a strong water sense. You will know the nature of water when you see it, how deep it goes, how swift it flows, whether it is drinkable or not, if it is poisoned or corrupted. This water sense will combine with your natural holy powers to make a spell that will create holy water from any clean water source. You can only make a small amount, but you will not need much."

" _I see. Thank you, master Pashka."_

"You have your water sense. Now, both of you come with me and we shall travel upstream."

X took hold of Pashka's spine scales and they went into the Forbidden Mountains.


	48. Mirage Swamp

September 23, XX68

Squad 19 had made camp near a spring. That morning, Agile and Laudo were filling water canteens and buckets in preparation for the day's journey. "Lovely little spot," Agile said. "Given that this mountain range is supposed to be forbidden and cursed."

"We're only on the outer reaches. Wait til we get deep inside, closer to the Tower. It'll get grim and dark."

"And Mirage Swamp is just ahead," Serges said as he came by. "That's a deadly spot. Of course, nearly every spot here is deadly."

"If you say so… hey, something's coming up."

Serges and Laudo looked in the spring. There was a blurry animal coming up and it was huge. Serges stepped back. "Sigma! We've got a dragon!"

"Dragon?" Sigma got up and came to the spring. Everyone else approached cautiously, weapons at ready.

Agile, Serges, and Laudo got away from the edge just as the dragon rose above water. Before long, another reploid jumped off of the dragon's neck and landed on the rocks. He had black hair and a white wizard robe. Underneath his robe, one could tell he was wearing simple blue armor.

Was that Rock, the old hero? Sigma wondered. Like every other reploid child, he had loved the stories of Rock and Blues, the heroes who defeated Dr. Wily. But no. His eyes glowed brightly. The wizard smiled and waved. "Hello Sigma."

Oh, it was him. "Hello X."

The other members of his squad, particularly the Wily reploids, looked to Sigma for a hint of what to do. He indicated that they should keep their weapons away. X was a potential enemy, but wasn't one openly yet. And he was with a dragon to boot.

X turned to the dragon and spoke to it in the dragon language. The two of them and X's elf exchanged words. After a short goodbye, the dragon slipped back into the spring and vanished. "What are you guys doing out here?"

"We're on a foray," Sigma replied. "What are you doing out here alone? You're not a Patrol member."

"No, I'm not. I have some personal business to take care of. I know what I'm doing; you don't have to worry about me."

Still, until the full force was ready to attack, they had to play by Field Patrol rules. Those included escorting civilians in dangerous territories. And since X wore no badge, "We're here for some time, so if you need us to escort you somewhere, we can work our plans around it."

"You won't be able to follow where I'm going. You could join me to Mirage Swamp, if it's not too far out of your path. Just don't come in with me or you'll get hopelessly lost and drowned."

"You're entering Mirage Swamp alone?" Serges asked. "Are you mad?"

"No, I'm not mad, and my elf is holy. I'll be just fine there."

Sigma's older self had been quite insistent that X and Zero were dangerous reploids. He never really believed that. They had been small kids, and X was still on the small side. Well if he wanted to go to Mirage Swamp, Sigma didn't care. Might even get rid of him before he became a problem. "If you're certain. But is that all you have with you, one pack and an elf?"

X's elf jingled, sounding insulted. X spoke to him in Elf, then told Sigma, "I have everything I need."

"Very well. Give us a few minutes to finish packing, and then we'll head for Mirage Swamp."

* * *

Traveling with a Patrol, X was able to get better maps of the Forbidden Mountains. The trek still looked rough. There were ancient roads and paths, but not all were properly mapped. Centuries ago, a race known as the Fae had nearly ruled the world. They preferred to live in mountainous areas. The Forbidden Mountains were named as their mythical place of origin; the holy city of Arwen was once their capitol.

Currently, the Fae were reported extinct. But Pashka's words made X wonder. Could that powerful race of tricksters still be alive? If so, would they help or hinder his quest?

"Excuse me," one of the Patrolmen asked. "Mind if we talk?"

He looked up at the two strangers. From their red-violet eyes, X figured that they were brothers. "I don't mind. What do you two have in mind?"

"My name is Laudo Whittaker, and this is my brother Raitzen."

Raitzen nodded.

"He usually doesn't speak, so don't mind him. I wanted to ask you about White magic."

"I'll tell you what I can." X looked over the two brothers. Raitzen was a Shaman of the Shadow ring; his aura had a clear strength in Air. Laudo's rank wasn't readily apparent. What was apparent was that he was in the White ring. "Are you an adept?"

Laudo nodded. "Yes. The woman seer who trained my third eye said I was a strong one too. Of course, considering our father is Quint,"

Raitzen tapped his brother's shoulder.

"I know, it hasn't been proven. But I've got a strong feeling that he is. Anyhow, my teachers haven't been able to teach me much. I want to know who trained you."

"I started under a sorcerer named Lulani. I finished under several ghosts who were masters."

"Ghosts?"

"That is the only way now. You have learned necromancy, haven't you?"

He shifted nervously. "Yes… but I haven't had much contact with the dead, other than a few reliable spirits I could trust. Are most ghosts friendly?"

"Most are harmless, just lost. If you listen to them and help them on their way, they can give you a lot of wisdom. Even the ones that aren't strong in White."

"Huh." He scratched his head. "I suppose I have to."

"There is a haunted temple in Firelily Jungle. That's where I was, so you should try there. However, you'll probably have to leave your brother behind. They'll make you take an oath of silence."

"I see." He turned to his brother. "You'll be okay with that?"

He gripped Laudo's shoulder.

"I'll be fine. I'll miss you a lot, though."

"The nearest city is Wyndia. It takes around three days to get there from the Temple, so you'll have to shop for supplies every three months about."

"I've had survival training. What, are you trying to talk me out of this? I thought that with the lack of White wizards, new ones would be great."

"Yes, but…"

"And I'd always thought that since I was a second gen Wily reploid, I might be able to complete training without harassment. I know they know that I'm in the White ring. So far, I haven't been bothered."

"I wasn't bothered, but that's because I lived in Fort Cerise. No, it's not that."

"Then what? Why shouldn't I be a White wizard? Do you sense some problem with my magic? I'd like to know; I can improve."

His brother tapped his shoulder to get him to pause.

X smiled at Raitzen for that. "Nothing wrong with you. White magic has some difficult truths to learn, though. Those who live by the true spirit of our ring seek truth, even if it is painful to know. And there are some truths that have caused me great worry and concern in learning them."

"I know the truth can hurt."

"You'll be questioned many more times about quitting. Think it over before you go. More than any other ring, you must want to know White magic in order to learn it."

"I do. I'll look into this temple, then." Laudo clasped his hands together and looked into the fire. "There is something else I'd like to discuss, on a different subject. It's about the Wily clan."

"What about it?"

"Specifically, about people like my brother and me. The second generation." He looked over at X. "Do you know how many of us are out there?"

He shook his head. "I've not heard. But I have three cousins who are all second gen Wily reploids."

"There's no official numbers out there. However, I've used my third eye to look into it. I can safely say there have been about fifty reploids that were built by Master Wily over the years. I think the actual number is fifty-three, but can't say for sure. And these are individuals; his children that have been rebuilt or altered over time still only count as one."

"That sounds about right."

"Any one of those reploids can have a child. Even the few daughters. It's said that they take advantage of cities with open adoption policies to secretly have their children raised outside the clan itself. Out of the whole clan, only one child was openly born into it because the masters declared him part of their plan."

"My cousin Equinox."

"There is nothing that forbids them from having affairs and knowing of their own children. They are forbidden from marriage, no exceptions, and it's said that they are advised against having more than one child from one partner. Thus, Raitzen and I are probably statistical anomalies if we are both from Quint. So having about fifty reploids over eighty some years, not forbidden from affairs, although restricted in their social capacity by the eyes."

"I hadn't considered it, but there must be a fair number of you out there."

"One hundred and twelve. Just about two per clansman. About seventy percent of them know; maybe forty or thirty percent actually know who or suspect who."

"So what about your group?"

"My powers suggest that every second gen is a fighter to some degree. That worries me; did Wily make a program that would get passed on to his reploid grandchildren, and maybe beyond that? Is there a chance that all one hundred and twelve of us could hold some dangerous plot in wait? He made Omega's body to destroy any race that destroyed him.

"So who's to say we don't have some danger? I mean, if I had a choice, I would just be a poet and a seer. But programs from my father give me a draw towards battle. When I was a child, everyone saw me as an innocent, thought that I'd never hurt a single soul. And with Raitzen watching over me, it should have been so. But once I became an adult, I started being drawn to weapons and battle spells. I know my soul hates battle. I get so nervous and I feel ill when I see a dead body. And yet, something in me loves the feel of the gun and the power of a devastating spell."

"He really should be a pacifist completely," Raitzen said. His voice was deep, touched with care for his brother.

Laudo sighed and put his face in his hands. "Ever since my first battle, I've been torn between loving and hating the warrior in me. I want to know if this is some hidden genetic trap that Master Wily has put in us."

"You're talking about a genetic check that would crash any child formed without the draw to violence. But I know what you're talking about. Another of my cousins, Solstice, fits your worry. She was born without armor. Everyone thought she'd be like Roll, not suited for battle. But then she passed the Dust Bunny King's test at four years old, and excelled in swordplay."

"And this check would have to work on both the males and females."

"Look at me." X studied Laudo's eyes for a while. His soul really was peaceful, one that would fit a poet best. And most of his programs geared him towards observation, intellectual pursuits, and mastery of languages. But there were those lurking genes that drew him to violence and mastery of battle magic.

"If I knew any way to silence those programs…"

"You may have to learn to ignore them or shut them down."

"Is it a genetic trap?"

"Your situation would suggest the possibility. You could talk it over with an engineer, but I'm sure they'll tell you that it's dangerous to mess with a living reploid's programming."

"I know. I just… I hope it's only for our generation, and not for generations to come."

* * *

September 30, XX68

The group had to move slowly through the range. Falling rocks were always a danger. So were the sudden winds, natural magic storms, lightning flares, dark magical creatures, minor earthquakes, thick fogs, poisonous fumes, and volcanic activity. Added to that, few people really knew the area and maps were always unreliable. Even satellite imagery was unreliable, since magic was strong enough to scatter the signals and disguise acres of terrain. Some old maps would shade this area and state 'Do Not Go Here'.

In one sled, Vile asked, "Is it a good idea to be escorting him? We know the Light clan will favor the humans."

"For now, we have to play nice," Sigma said. "Besides, he's asking to go into Mirage Swamp. Even with his elf being holy, it's young and won't be able to help."

" _The will'o'wisps will kill his elf_ ," Sigma's own elf said. _"Then they will led him to deep water and drown him."_

"Vedic agrees with me," Sigma translated. "We'll let him off there, have Laudo or Dynamo search for him on our way back, then report the bad news to the old hero. We'll say we tried to dissuade him and X went ahead into the swamp. It'd be nice to get proof of his body, but I'm not risking anyone to mirages."

"I don't like this," Vile said. "But if we must."

In another sled, Neko hung close to X. Eventually, he spoke in the dragon tongue. _"I don't like this."_

X felt surprised, so responded in dragon. " _What about this? You're not worried about Mirage Swamp, are you?"_

" _Not that. It's this group."_

He looked around. Dynamo was driving, although every now and then he glanced at X, to see what he was doing. _"It's Xenophon's stories, isn't it?"_

" _I probably am biased against them. In his stories, if I ran into this entire group together, I would be very worried, and wouldn't be the only one. They were bad enough in smaller groups, but all of them at once…"_

" _This group hasn't done anything bad so far. We can't do something because of a mirrored history."_

Neko sighed. _"I know. I just hope we don't regret this."_

"What are you guys growling about?" Dynamo asked in jest.

"He's worried about his mother," X replied.

As he thought, Neko jingled and turned pink in embarrassment. Dynamo's elf giggled. " _What the hell? You guys are entering Mirage Swamp and you're worried about your mother?"_

" _I just left her,"_ Neko said. _"I hope she's not too mad at me for bonding suddenly. She wanted to help me out."_

" _Momma's boy,"_ the elf taunted.

" _Why did you mention my mother?"_ Neko hissed in dragon. " _Especially when we both know he's actually male and actually my caretaker?"_

" _They've probably noticed how young you are. And I knew your reaction would make it seem like we really were talking about Xenophon. Do you want them to know that we suspect they may not be what they claim to be?"_

" _I guess not."_

" _I'm sorry about embarrassing you."_

" _I'll let it go. Better I get embarrassed then they find out we suspect them."_

X glanced around at the group ahead. " _And I do agree with you. Something about this group is masked. I don't think they're up to any good out here."_

" _Are we in trouble?"_

" _Not right now. But next time we meet up with them, we could be."_

A shout came from the last sled. "We've got cockatrice! Right…"

Everyone went on alert, but did not want to look at the cockatrice group. Serges called, "Anybody have a mirror?"

X opened his pack and pulled out the serving tray. He had to disenchant it first. "Here." He threw it with telekinesis.

Serges noticed and caught it with the same. He quickly cast a spell into the mirror. The cockatrice, two of them apparently, screamed and turned into stone at their own reflections.

"Is that all?" Sigma asked.

"Yeah. But we lost Agile, Violen, and Raitzen."

"I'll check them out," X offered. "I can reverse the stone curse."

The group stopped and X went to the last sled. The two stone monsters had flanked and surprised them. But since it was soon, the reversal spell was guaranteed to work. X calculated HealA9.7/A/m to free them. He would have to drain energy from himself, but it would do.

"Here," Agile finished. He blinked at seeing X in front of him. "Huh?"

"They should be fine," X called up to Sigma, who got the group moving again. X turned back to the three. "I need to examine you to make sure the healing was complete. And if you still feel stiff in your joints in three days, you should see a doctor about it."

X checked them over, then slept until they reached Mirage Swamp. He got out and walked up to Sigma's sled upon waking. Serges asked, "What were you holding onto a serving tray for?"

X took it, but it had been ruined. He had defended it against high temperatures, not against Stone Gaze. The mirror part was tarnished black and the gold paint had been blasted off. "Oh no… I had that for an offering to the dragon."

"You were going to give a cheap serving tray to a dragon?" Sigma asked, puzzled.

"Because it had a mirrored surface. Dragons don't care about monetary worth, just about prettiness, shininess, and such things. This isn't good."

Sigma thought about it, then took something off his neck. "You saved my men. You can take this as an offering."

X caught the silver ankh. "Isn't this the one from your exorcism?"

He shrugged. "I don't need it anymore. Go ahead."

"If it's all right. Thank you for the escort. I hope you find what you're looking for." X's vision flickered. "Although it won't be what you're hoping for."

"Excuse me?"

He closed his eyes. "It's vague, but I see… there's a riddle of who is the master and who is the puppet. You may have things wrong." He looked back up at Sigma. "Sorry if that confused you. My third eye isn't exact."

"Well thank you for your help. Good luck in your quest."

* * *

" _Hold up,"_ Neko said. His aura flashed rapidly. When it settled down, he said, _"Take one more step and we will be in Mirage Swamp. You'd best call for Talasi now."_

"Good idea." X knelt down and drew the runes in the marsh. Then he stood, thought for a moment, and called, _"Honorable dragon Talasi, I wish to earn your blessing. Please spare my life until we can speak."_

" _Will that request work?"_ Neko asked quietly.

"I can hope. All right. My life is in your hands now." X entered Mirage Swamp.

It didn't change. The area still looked like a damp brown and green swamp. Neko flew ahead of X, who followed him exactly. A step forward, then to the right, a few steps forward, to the right… an hour into the swamp trek, X felt puzzled. It seemed every time they turned, they went right. And the distant peaks stayed in the same relative position.

"Are we going in a circle?"

" _No. The path is clear to me. Keep following me as you are; this water is thick and deep. There are man-eaters out here too. They haven't come on the path yet."_

X smiled. "For a place of mirages, they haven't been creative yet. I keep seeing the same grass tufts, the same lily pads, the same rocks, nothing different. Oh, no, that's different."

" _Hmm? Keep following me."_

"It's just a tree."

" _Actually, that's a pole with a corpse on it."_

X shuddered. "Really?"

" _Yeah. Looks like there's a lizardman encampment around someplace. I'll lead you around it if we run into it."_

"Sure. I trust you."

" _Hold up."_ Neko stopped. Then he flew onto X's shoulder. " _There's a band of will'o'wisps ahead."_

Looking ahead, he did see five balls of light floating above the swamp. "I think I see them."

" _We can't be too sure you do… I know. I can fling water balls at them. Think you can match targets with my spell?"_

"That should be easy enough. But stay on my shoulder; you don't want to be caught in the spell I'm going to cast."

" _All right."_

Neko started up his spell. X calculated his, but held off on the targeting rune until he sensed where his elf's spell was going. Neko cast Water Ball; soon after, X cast Fairy Bane. The will'o'wisps screeched upon being hit by the bane spell, but instead of scattering as X hoped they would, they rushed at them. X was hit by several rounds of Bewilder. This spell was meant to confuse one's opponent into letting their guard down. X closed his eyes and held still. Ignoring various spells targeting him, he calculated Holy Ray. That would damage the wisps and leave Neko unharmed. Holy Ray hissed out and X expected to hear quiet after.

There was a cry of anger. _"Give that back!"_ Neko shouted.

X opened his eyes. There were two fairy auras chasing each other around. There was another hovering in front of him. " _Follow me,"_ the one in front of him said, also in Neko's voice.

"What?"

" _Ignore them. They're trying to fool you. Come on."_

" _No, follow me,"_ one of the chasers said, as he rushed up to X. He also sounded like Neko and had a gold cross, which the other two didn't have. " _I know where we're going."_

" _They stole my birth cross!"_ the third cried. "Give it back!"

" _Don't try to fake tears, darkling,"_ the first said.

" _Thief!"_ The third activated a Water Sword Slash to attack the second, which had the cross necklace.

"Hold on, you three," X said. "All three of you could be fakes."

" _I'm not!"_ all three said.

"Please be quiet. None of you will reach your goals if you don't let me decide which of you is real, correct? So let me think."

They consented to this.

X considered. All three appeared to be just balls of light, but that could be Mirage Swamp messing with his senses. The second one did have the cross necklace, but he wasn't wearing it. The first one spoke of wisp tricks, but that could be a trick in itself. The third one was more emotional than Neko usually was. However, it was his birth cross, which would be important to him, and he had used the right sort of spell to be Neko. And it was possible that they were all fakes.

"Okay, I know how to decide now. I'm going to ask you a question that only Neko can answer right. That way, I will know which of you is real and which is fake. Understand?"

" _Easy."_

" _Gotcha."_

" _Yes."_

X pointed to the third. "You're Neko."

" _What?"_ the two fakes asked. " _That's not fair."_

"But it's right," X replied.

Neko brightened. " _Now give me back my cross."_ He attacked the other two again. They flew off, with his cross.

"Are you okay?" X asked.

" _I'm not hurt. But they took my birth cross."_ X cupped his hands together and let Neko land. " _Sure, I can just call up another, but the first cross is most important."_

"Well," X looked around, "I hate to say this, but I don't think we can get it back. I need your help getting through here, and they'll try to lead us away from Talasi with it."

Now his aura dimmed. There was a sparkle and X could see his body again, with a new cross. _"Our bond is not replaceable, my class symbol is. Let's keep going."_

"Yes." He looked over himself, just in case. He saw his armor with some spell damage. "Oh drat. What happened to my robe?"

" _One of the wisps cast a wind spell at you, which tore it off. But it was in bad shape already. A betagator tried to take a bite out of you yesterday. I scared it off."_

"Yesterday?"

" _You've only seen the same things over and over again, right? It's been an eventful week."_

"Week?" X shook his head. "I haven't noticed that much time pass."

" _I'm afraid so. I was worried when you first started sleepwalking. You never responded, only followed. When I told you to rest, you rested, standing up if I didn't modify it first. You've only spoken to me a few times."_

X rubbed his forehead. "I'm grateful for your help. I hope we get through soon."

Neko flew ahead. " _Although I'm curious, since you're talking now; how did you know me from the fakes without asking a single question?"_

"I did ask a question. I asked if you understood."

" _That was the question?"_

"Not the one I had in mind, but upon hearing the answers, I knew. It was easy."

" _Oh really?"_

"When you trust, you speak openly. But if there is anyone in the room you don't quite trust or feel is a friend, you speak simply and to the point. You answered simply 'yes'. The other two had casual answers, so by word choice, I knew you."

" _I didn't realize that,"_ Neko replied.

They walked on, sometimes talking, sometimes silent. X wondered about the passing of time (a week?) and how Neko was seeing this. And why, for a mirage, he kept seeing the same things, save for small differences like, "Hey, is that a rat in the bog?"

Neko paused in flight. " _Actually, yes, that is. Looks like he's stuck."_

X knelt down. "I'd rather not leave him there. Neko, tell me if I have him." He took hold of the struggling animal through telekinesis and began pulling him out.

" _You have him."_

"Good." X pulled the rat out fully and placed him on the path. There was some weed knotted up in his legs. Careful because this was a wild animal, X took hold of the weed and got it off. "There. I hope he's okay now."

" _He should be fine. Let's keep going. There's some shadows I don't trust around here."_ Neko flew ahead. X followed and soon after, the rat followed him.

They went on. X still thought they were going in circles, but Neko insisted he had the right path. The only path, apparently. The rat followed along. X wondered if there was a language for speaking with rats. Then something caught his attention.

He stopped. There was a mass of vibrant blue flowers to his right. The individual flowers could fit into his palm, and they were blossoming ten at a time from hundreds of pods. He wondered how he could have missed them earlier. Their scent was overwhelmingly sweet and intoxicating. "Wow, that's beautiful."

" _X, whatever you're seeing isn't real. This is not a good spot to stop."_

"That's a pity. Those blue flowers are gorgeous."

" _Blue flowers?"_ Neko's aura twitched. " _Actually, there are a whole bunch of blue flowers over there. Probably in the thousands."_

X took a small step toward one of the pods. "Growing on a vine with ten flowers to a pod, right?"

" _Yeah, that's right. Maybe you are seeing that. Are we already out of Mirage Swamp? We still need to find Talasi."_

"Strange that such a beautiful plant is growing in a place like this. Maybe it's magical."

The rat squeaked, then tried to bite X's foot. It didn't account for his armor. Neko was mad. _"Hey, why are you trying to bite him? He saved you."_

X hardly noticed. He touched one of the flowers. "I wonder what it is." He leaned forward and sniffed it.

He had seen some strange scenes on his dream quest, but that was only after long hours of chanting, fasting, and meditation. This trance came the instant the flower pollen hit his brain. The world exploded in color, from the drab green and brown swamp to a brilliant psychedelic dance. Where there had been only the sound of wind, now there were whispers, as if the wind knew something, but X didn't have the key to translate it. But it was amazing.

" _X?"_ Neko tugged at his hair. _"Get away from those flowers."_

But X was already far gone.


	49. Paralysis

Sometimes one didn't need to think. X wasn't thinking right now. It was a strange sort of release. After spending his whole life thinking, questioning, wondering, asking, learning, always, always thinking, now he wasn't thinking. He was very relaxed. Even his dream quest had not been this relaxing. Of course, then he had things to learn and things to think about. Now, it was just… he wasn't sure. X wasn't thinking, so he couldn't know. Perhaps just noticing.

He noticed fire. Fire all around him. Fire like a lake of fire. Zero had multiple dreams of a lake of fire when he was possessed by the Fire Dragon. Did fire move in waves and tides? Or was this lava? No, it was insubstantial. Fire. X sat in the fire and realized it wasn't deep. It was like a carpet, or blanket. Fire had such amazing beauty. X noticed how it danced.

He noticed footsteps. He looked up and saw Zero. He noticed all the battle wounds he bore. Zero's gaze was ahead. "We've dealt with the dragons," he said. "Now we must deal with the one who brought them here."

X, dumbfounded by the flower's scent, blinked.

Zero kept looking ahead. X finally turned his head to look. There was a path of ice with the fire. Ice was beautiful too. It was like a mirror. The mirror of ice reflected the tide of fire. It also reflected someone above.

X looked up and saw someone. Who was it? He didn't notice, and didn't care to think so he could recognize the someone. But the someone had wings. Great big black wings. Angel wings or demon wings? X couldn't think, so couldn't decide. And the someone with wings had wings on the head too. Were those wings, or were those clumps of hair sticking out like wings? And the face…

No, the eyes. The someone with wings had eyes. X looked into the eyes and saw the Paranoid Mirror. In those eyes, he saw a demonically possessed Zero tear X apart, while he was still alive. When Zero had eyes of fire…

He looked at Zero beside him. He wore an armor of fire. A large black rune blade was in his hand, etched with the runes, 'Master of Summer'. Zero looked down at X with eyes of demonic fire.

X screamed.

"Calm down, X," he heard Zero say.

"Get away from me!"

" _X?"_ There was a bell-like tone of sorrow after.

"Drink this potion," a motherly voice said. "Then you need some actual rest."

X clasped a wooden goblet. His power core still fluttered with fear. "Huh?"

The cup was nudged. "Drink it."

He went ahead and drank from the cup. It was a warm concoction that tasted strongly of honey. He looked around, but the world was blurred with strange colors.

"Don't take what he's saying now personally," the female said. "His mind is still muddled by the Mindbane flowers."

" _Okay,"_ Zero said. No… that was Neko.

Or was it? X felt confused now. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Finish that and rest," she repeated.

"Sure." X drank what was in the goblet. Then he drifted into blurry dreams.

* * *

October 19, XX68

Iris was in her dressing room, preparing for another show. She wore a blue jumper dress over a white blouse, like a peasant girl. A straw hat and… she opened the drawers in increasing frustration. She went to the door and peered into the hall. Everyone was in a rush. "Kelly, where's my necklace?"

But the stage director was busy with someone else. Sighing, she started to close the door. One of her reploid co-stars, playing her rival in the play, put her hand on the door. "Iris dear, would you mind lending me one of your hairclips? I'm missing part of my costume."

"Sure, come on in. I'm missing part of mine too."

Chantal Angelique followed her in. "We'll have to give the costume department a talking to. This is the third play in a row where I haven't had my full costume on opening night. The first time, I got the wrong underthings."

"That couldn't be good." Iris looked through her bag of clips and pulled out one. It was white with a peach-pink iris and two doves on it. "I think this one will match."

"Thank you. You have such lovely tastes."

"I have to have a necklace though."

"What about that amber one you wear sometimes? I love that one."

Oh right, the one X gave to protect her. She wore it under her clothes when going home on late nights. "It might work. I don't think anyone will get close enough to realize it doesn't match the play." She opened up her purse to get it.

"Does this look good?"

"You look great, Chantal… oh, what happened to your neck?" Iris gently touched a strange blemish. It was pale and greenish.

She looked in the mirror. "Oh no, it's already wearing off. Don't mind it. I'd better go put on some more concealer."

"It doesn't look good. What happened to you?"

"It's old, don't worry. We have plenty enough to think of tonight. Knock the audience out of their seats, dear."

"Right, you too."

* * *

By the intermission, a number of people were cross about missing costume parts, mislabeled props, and part of the backdrop that had broken. They pressed ahead, figuring that acting quality might beat out any mishaps elsewhere. As a new play, nobody wanted a bad review.

In the second half, just before a scene they had together, Iris noticed that Chantal looked faint. "Are you okay? Do we need to grab your understudy?"

"I'll be fine, dear," she asserted. "Just… see about stalling my entrance for just a minute, so I can get settled."

"Okay." And her entrance cue came up. Iris made a sign that Chantal needed a moment, then went onstage.

They were to participate in a duet, an argument over who would marry one of the men not knowing he was about to be revealed (to them) as the villain. Iris was just supposed to be walking in the town square, but since her character did have a ditty she repeated often, she sang that. It should give Chantal the moment she needed.

She came on and they went into the duet. But Chantal's voice was wavering and she wasn't singing entirely in character. This wasn't good. Iris did her half well. That is, until Chantal attacked her.

Iris saw her co-star's eyes and how monstrous they seemed. She screamed and stumbled back. The audience was anxious, not sure if this was part of the play or not. And then the amber necklace glowed.

Chantal shrieked this time, with black lines forming over her hands. She sent a black wave of shadow magic with a wild wave of her arm. The audience realized this was real and started a panic to leave. But the amber necklace kept the wave from hurting Iris.

"Chantal?" Iris asked, nervous.

She ran off-stage and grabbed a background techie. He screamed and tried to fight her off, until she put him to sleep. Then she entered Iris' dressing room (as the nearest one), touched the mirror… and they were gone.

Iris grabbed hold of the amber. The stage director came onstage. "Iris, are you okay?"

"I'm all right." She looked at the clover stuck in the amber. "She couldn't hurt me."

* * *

October 20, XX68

Sigma stood at the entrance of a cave, watching for monsters. Off in the distance, he could see the twisted black branches of Ikari Tower. It was impressive, surrounded by mountains but not intimidated by them. But still, why build it like a dead tree? That made it look blatantly evil. Sigma would build it to look like a living tree, so its presence was still awe-inspiring and made others think nothing sinister could go on there.

Agile approached him from behind. "Sigma, we're in."

"Good. Let's go."

They walked quickly down the cave corridor. After a turn, stairs appeared and the walls became carved. There was a long descent to large iron doors. Violen let Agile and Sigma through, then came in and shut the doors behind them. They were in now, and escape would be difficult.

This particular entrance, being so far from the Tower itself, had a trolley. Agile entered the password and the three rode into the main underground network. It was quiet, Sigma noticed.

"We haven't had any trouble," Agile whispered. "No security beyond the network, no guards, not a single reploid. The guys are sticking together, but this quiet is nerve-racking."

"The old master could be expecting us," Sigma said. "I wouldn't put it past him. Or Gate, for that matter."

At the end of the trolley line, Sigma's squad stood in a room, uneasy. Serges pointed to some screens, which showed static. "We got nothing," he said. "We met no resistance coming here, we met no resistance getting in here, and we still have no resistance… I don't like this."

"Neither do I." He looked around the room and made sure he had everyone's attention. "Okay men, we need caution, but we may be expected. Let's go in open and peaceful for now. We expect to meet with Albert Wily, the mastermind of this place. However, based on certain facts and X's prophetic statement, we should also expect Ikari Domino, who may be the real power, using Wily's phantom to frighten the public. Above all, keep your eyes open. Now, you four know where we're going."

The four second gen Wily reploids nodded and led the way. It remained quiet. Some security cameras noticed them, but did nothing. They met with no one.

Laudo was first to notice. He slipped back to Sigma and said, "I sense a large number of reploids ahead. All in one room."

Lumine put a scanner over his head. "He's right. Fifty-nine reploids and a single human. Seems like the entire Wily force."

"Just fifty-nine?"

Dynamo nodded. "That's the current strength."

"They don't seem aggressive," Laudo said. "Just… it's like they're waiting."

"Waiting?"

Laudo nodded.

"Let's hope they have answers." Sigma opened the door.

It was a long dining hall. The fifty-nine Wily reploids were sitting at the tables. They turned to look at Sigma's squad, but did nothing. As Sigma came in, they watched him, but said nothing. It was eerie.

"What's going on here?" Sigma asked. "Where's your father?"

There was no response. A few looked to others, as if puzzled by the situation.

Sigma picked Quint out of the crowd. "Well? Explain yourselves."

Quint looked up at him. His silver eye glittered. His other eye seemed blank. Looking closer, Sigma saw that his organic skin looked dry and sickly. There was a faint burn odor in the air too. That would only be there if Quint, and the others, hadn't taken in any liquids for several days.

On an educated guess, Sigma touched Quint's outlet port for a diagnostics check. Normally one couldn't do this to an acquaintance. Quint did nothing. His diagnostics indicated that he had not eaten or drank anything for three days. He had not done anything, apparently. For now, he would be fine if he was fed, given water, and allowed to sleep. But he was close to a dangerous condition where his systems would begin collapsing.

He handed Quint his own canteen. "Drink that."

Quint did nothing. His one eye looked at the canteen with need, but the silver eye glittered.

"Sigma, these reploids are very sick," Lumine said.

"I've noticed," he replied. "Lumine, come with me. The rest of you try to get them to drink clean water. You may have to force them."

"Is Wily punishing them somehow?"

"Tell me where the human signal is coming from."

"Right," he paused to check his scanner. "Should be behind the front table."

It was Ikari Domino. He was lying unconscious on the floor, but he was breathing. Sigma looked at Lumine. "Well?"

"Half-dead. Could revive him if we had to. I can't tell what that mess is, though." He pointed to an array of glass, mechanics, and gelatinous blobs. "It's something organic, part of it anyhow."

Sigma looked over the mess. "Hmmm… Vile, come up here!"

"Yes Sigma?"

"Come over here. Tell me what this is."

Vile looked over the mess on the floor. "That… that would be Dr. Wily's life support machine."

"I guess that explains them," Sigma said. "Wily left no contingency plan in case of his final death. Although it doesn't explain him."

Lumine knelt down and picked up a shard of glass. The edge was partly melted. "Rune blade, particularly one of fire. From the lack of damage elsewhere, I'd say whoever attacked him wasn't expected. Someone he trusted, but didn't control."

"Sigma, check this out." Vile picked up and handed over part of a hidden drawer. It held two globes the size of a human's fist. One was gold; one was silver. Also with the globes was a ring made of bone.

Sigma looked them over closely. They had small holes in the bottom. He peered through the gold one. It showed him another view of the room, from one of the Wily reploids sitting still now. "Raise your hand if you can hear me."

One of the gold-eyed reploids raised his left hand.

"These are the control spheres," Sigma said. "You guys, wait a sec." Then he smashed the two metal globes against the table.

There were startled noises as the long enslaved reploids finally were freed. They were grateful to be given water and food at last, not to mention their own minds. Quint came up to the front table. "You'll want to save Ikari," he suggested.

"What for?"

"He's Wily's son, and was enslaved like the rest of us. But he will know things none of us know. I'll show you to the human care center."

* * *

It was a strange sensation. Equinox was starving. Worse, he was so thirsty. But he could not do anything. He could hardly think without pain. Wily was dead, but his reploids were still trapped by the silver and gold eyes.

Equinox looked at the glass of water in front of him. It had been sitting there for three days. He tried again to will himself to drink. But it didn't work. He just couldn't make himself move. Who knew one of his biggest frustrations would be trying to drink a glass of water right in front of him? Equinox's head spun and felt as if it would float away. He was on the verge of losing consciousness.

The door opened. Sigma and his patrol walked in. They demanded an explanation. No one in the room could give one. They all sat silently and watched.

Would they override the eyes? Equinox hoped for that. The gold eye didn't even inflict pain on him for that. Even if he just took the masters, that would be good, because then he could get water and food and not just waste away, dying ignobly. The Fire Dragon Omega was so cruel.

One of Sigma's men came over to him. He had long white hair. "What's a kid doing here?" he asked. "And about to pass out too. Here." He took the glass and tried to make Equinox drink.

Once his lips touched water, his body took over and allowed him to drink finally. It felt so good. They weren't going to die.

When he was halfway done, he felt an odd signal from the gold eye. It did nothing, so he continued drinking. And then Sigma smashed the master eyes on the front table.

Equinox gagged and coughed as some water slipped down the wrong tubes. The one helping him, Dynamo, used a spell to help him. "Thank you," he said, even though his throat scratched.

"Don't talk now," Dynamo said. "Get rehydrated and something to eat. Then we have plenty to talk about."

* * *

October 22, XX68

One of the more time consuming jobs was replacing all the shattered eyes with normal ones. Some wanted the same color, while others didn't mind having two-toned eyes. Laudo and Raitzen helped out, searching through a cabinet of eye parts to find suitable ones. At one point, Raitzen poked his brother. He held out a red-violet eye that matched theirs exactly.

Laudo checked the screen that told them what abilities the eyes had. "It was made specifically for him. Do we want to go talk?"

Raitzen nodded, so they took it back to the repair room Quint was in. Laudo put the eye into a repair machine. "Found yours. It was the only one of its color here."

"I know that."

"Anything else you need for repairs?"

"I'm good."

He didn't say anything for a bit, so they went to leave. It was disappointing, but then again, he may not have known. But he should know, Laudo thought. He was younger than Raitzen by three years.

Then Quint said, "Your mother, Mimosa, is she still in Velspar?"

Laudo shook his head. "No, we moved to Alexandria. She's there."

He seemed serious as he nodded. But then his lips curled in a warm smile. "You may have to show me where. It has been much too long since I have seen her."

* * *

Sigma opted out of the eye operations and instead looked over the bone ring. It was odd, but several of the clan recommended he didn't break it. He got word that the human was fully revived, so Sigma went to meet him. Ikari was brewing tea when he entered the room. "Do you take sugar, milk, or plain?"

"I'll take care of my own, thank you."

"If you wish." He put a spoon of sugar in his tea and stirred.

You need to sit in that chair, Sigma thought.

Ikari picked up his tea and sat in the chair Sigma picked out. He seemed quite natural. Anyone else in the room would have guessed Ikari picked the chair on his own. He took a sip, then looked at Sigma. "What do you wish to know?"

"Who killed Wily and how?"

"You have spoken to the others. But I will tell. The Fire Dragon did."

"Fire Dragon?"

He nodded. "Yes. There was a secret affair years ago between one of our reploids and the Light girl. I did a reading on it and discovered something remarkable. The child had been conceived at a mystically potent moment. The stars were in the right places, the planet's aura was just so, the couple was well matched, and certain flowers were blooming in the vicinity. And a myriad of other small signs pointed to this child becoming a great person. Am I taking too long, or do you mind?"

"Go ahead. I have time. Just don't bore me."

Ikari bowed his head. "As you wish. So we conspired to get a copy of the child's DNA programming. I recommended leaving it as is, but my father wished to meddle with it. It took much too long, and Blues managed to capture the Fire Dragon, as his codename was. When the Ice Dragon experiment failed…"

"Ice Dragon experiment?"

"Yes. The Ice Dragon came from us. However, father did not listen to my advice and we lost control as a result. At that point, he became willing to listen to my ideas. I told him we should make the Fire Dragon fight the Ice Dragon, with a plot that included taking the original child, the child of Rock, and one of the children of this clan. You know how that wound up."

"I do. But doesn't that mean your 'Fire Dragon' could be either Zero or the shadow you made?"

"No. I would say Zero if I meant that child. Fire Dragon means the shadow, now called Omega. I am simply used to thinking of him as the Fire Dragon."

"Well use Omega. You don't have to be so riddling."

"I will try to be clearer from now on."

"Tell me what happened at the killing."

"We were having a celebratory feast at my father's birthday. He made us do that every year, even as he was becoming senile as of late. Omega showed up and everyone assumed he was there to offer his services. It had certainly been so long, and his activation was a pleasant surprise. But without warning, he slew our father." Ikari shrugged. "It happened so suddenly, no one could react to shield father. Our slave programs waited for instructions on what to do. Of course, none could come. Omega spoke in my hearing, as if to himself or some invisible other. He thought of draining our souls dry, but decided against it. He thought we were fools, soft on having our wills enslaved all our lives. So he left us there, to suffer an ignoble and slow death. We are all grateful to you."

It matched what others had said. "So what about you? If you're Wily's human son, why are you enslaved and using another name?"

"My mother named me," Ikari explained. "And my father decided to continue having me use it, to confuse others. My identity was used to disguise illegal works. As for why I am enslaved, you have the ring. You know."

"I don't."

"Then I shall show you."

Ikari reached behind his ears and fiddled with something. Then he pulled his scalp off, hair, skin, and all. Implanted right on top of his natural skull was a mass of electronics. Black boxes dug right into his brain, with wires coming in and out of the bone. A black square with a white symbol matched the control ring. The skin around the edge had sealant, so that when his scalp was on, his delicate brainwork was protected.

Sigma examined the craftsmanship. It was very well done, as all of Wily's other works. But unlike the slave eyes, this mental harness would be difficult to remove without killing Ikari. Sigma had no intention of freeing the human, but it was good to know. "I see." He silently gave permission to put the scalp back on.

Ikari sealed his head back up. As he set the hair right, he went on. "I have several siblings, all illegitimate and most unknowing. But he discovered I inherited his intellect and magical prowess. He brought me into his care; it didn't take long for him to despise me because I had my own mind and to become jealous because I was powerful. And so, I've been under enslavement since I was eleven."

"How old are you?"

"Seventy-nine. I know I do not look my age, but father wished to find immortality and experimented on me. I stopped aging around twenty-three, but his body was too old to save. We worked on creating a new immortal body for him. However, we had many other projects to attend to, and even now, his new body is incomplete. Not that it matters with his brain dead, but it's in storage."

"I see. Well, you are working for the Reploid Freedom Force now. I can count on your support and loyalty, right?"

"Sigma, whoever owns that ring owns my soul and body. I will serve you and you alone. If you happen to work for someone else, I may do their bidding as you instruct me to."

"I am the leader of the RFF. They'll all listen to me, especially with the Wily reploids in debt to me."

"Actually, now you have quite a job in establishing yourself as the true leader. Wily did a lot to separate power within your group. We found you useful, but did not want you gaining too much power."

Sigma glared at Ikari. "So you did manipulate us from the start."

"I am loyal to you now. I hope you have a lot of time." Ikari took a drink of his tea. "I will tell you how things are truly arranged. Knowledge is the best weapon."

* * *

October 29, XX68

Raitzen and Laudo were brothers. The former was older and usually didn't speak. He had hair the color of deep red wine and eyes the same. As a time mage, he wore heavily enchanted robes for armor, usually black and orange in color. He could manipulate time and space in a limited fashion. Warping himself and others short distances, splicing time for himself, quickening time for small spaces, and multiple body modifying spells made up his database. He could enter cursed places without effect.

Laudo was younger and practiced poetry for a hobby. His hair was exactly like their mother's, a mass of deep violet that blocked the right half of his face, but he shared his brother's and father's red eyes. His armor appeared light, but Raitzen had specially endowed it to have the same defensive strength as ultra-heavy armor. Laudo was an oracle that specialized in finding objects and people. He was probably the worst warrior in Squad 19, but his attuned senses made him an excellent scout and lookout.

The two of them were returning to Ikari Tower from a scouting trip into Mirage Swamp. Sigma wanted them to check on X, in case he'd died. Raitzen warped them quickly through the Tower's roots.

Sigma, Vile, and Serges were discussing plans. Laudo knocked on the door, although they were already in. "We've got something."

"What do you have?"

Raitzen placed the items on the table: a heavily damaged wizard robe and a tiny gold cross. Laudo spoke, "That is all we found, but it might be enough."

Serges pointed to a shredded edge. "Betagator." He pointed to a magic burn. "Will'o'wisp." He pointed to a long tear on the shoulder. "Possibly a banshee, definitely a flying foe." He pointed to a black and brown-red stain. "His. He's dead. But what's with this cross?"

"It belongs to his elf. It's the sign of a holy elf. Another proof that they got far in. But it doesn't guarantee they're dead."

"With that damage, it's not guaranteed?" Sigma asked skeptically. "That looks like proof enough."

"It could fool his father. But I kept getting the feeling something was off. X could be alive, although he's definitely got some damage. And goodness knows what Mirage Swamp did to his senses. He's not a finder; he's a visionary. But I could not find him. To me, that means there's a chance he could have made it to wherever he was going. Even so, this area is dangerous to a lone traveler and elf."

"And if he's making offerings to a dragon, he's still got a ways to go," Serges said. "We can pull it off."

* * *

November 2

Sigma walked into Rock's office. It was cluttered with spell books and accessories. The old hero, the one he'd admired for so long… now he smiled at Sigma coming in. "Good afternoon, Commander Sigma. Good to meet you."

He nodded. "Afternoon, Master Rock. I'm afraid I don't have good news for you. It's about your son."

Any polite gladness was replaced with deep concern. "Has he been hurt? No one had any clue that he would take off this time."

"My squad was doing a foray into the outer rim of the Forbidden Mountains when we found him. He tried to send us off initially, but after some conversation he accepted my offer to escort him. But not out of the range. He wanted to go into Mirage Swamp."

"Mirage Swamp?"

"We tried to dissuade him, all of us. But he was determined; he said there was something important and personal he had to do in that area. We offered an escort in there; I have two mages in my unit adept in exploring such places. We offered extra supplies, because he only had one backpack and his bonded elf. But he refused any more help and actually slipped away in the night, so we didn't try to keep him with us. I've never seen such reckless determination in anyone before."

Rock tapped his hands together. "Normally he's cautious but sometimes, these moods just hit X, I guess, and he does the strangest things, nearly always dangerous."

"He told one of my men that he expected to take a week at most in the swamp. So we waited for a week. I sent my mages after him. One is a finder oracle, but he couldn't locate X's aura. This was all they found." He handed over the tattered and messy robe and the small cross.

Rock was very upset. Sigma stayed with him, and thus earned his trust. His rebellion was coming to be more unexpected and certain to succeed.


	50. Dragon Stories

November 3, XX68

X woke up to a breakfast of swamp root soup. The rat carried a spoon to him in its tail. "Thank you."

The rat squeaked, then went to eating its own serving of soup. It was fairly good, even if X couldn't identify what exactly was in it. Not long after, Neko showed up. _"Good, you're awake finally. How do you feel?"_

"All right. My mind seems to be clear."

" _That's good."_ He landed on the table. " _You took a deep whiff of a Mindbane Ivy flower. It has hallucinogens in the pollen. You ran into it at full bloom without protection, when most potion brewers will only get it at first or last bloom, with heavy air filters. We had to wait a week until now, when your mind cleared."_

"That long, huh?"

Neko nodded.

"Well, you got me through there. I appreciate your effort."

" _That's fine."_ His wings twitched, then went back to slowly moving. _"I am glad to have you back, though. It's been a long lonely time for me. I started feeling the effects of loneliness as an elf. I wish I'd taken Xenophon more seriously. This is harder than I imagined."_

X stroked Neko's aura, having read that this was something elves liked. He did seem comforted with the touch. "You're doing well. Mirage Swamp must have been a more dangerous place than I thought. I wish I'd been able to help more."

" _You should do better next time, if we have to go back in. Talasi taught me about barriers and how to shield us both from curses, illusions, and psychological magic. Next time we're in the swamp, you should be able to see it for what it is."_

"Talasi found us? Good. So when can I talk with her?"

" _Unfortunately, you can't. She has an egg that's close to hatching, so she doesn't want anyone in her home."_

"I see. Did you get to talk to her?"

" _Yes; she was quite friendly and helped me out. The tunnel we're in will lead us to one of Audolen's shrines. She doesn't like that we're going to visit him; she says he's a basket case. She did watch us go through the swamp and thinks highly of you. She gave you her blessing, although you were stoned when she did it."_

X laughed. "Well, I got the blessing."

Neko's aura glittered in amusement. " _You did. She did agree with you; the silver ankh should work, but the mirrored tray would have been better. He may try something because we only have the ankh, but he might give in if you tell a good story and be flattering to him."_

"Okay. What about Nokomis?"

" _She said the same thing as Valera. Go to the top of any peak and call her name into the wind. That will get her attention."_

"Okay. So the worst is getting Audolen's favor."

" _Oh, and Talasi said Mau Lin is thankful."_

"Mau Lin?"

The rat squeaked.

X looked at it. "You're Mau Lin?"

He nodded.

" _He's a smart rat_ ," Neko said. _"He knew the flowers were bad. It seems that he lives in Arwen."_

"You're one of the Fae."

Mau chirped, then changed himself into a dove. He cooed and placed a pendant on the table. Then he took off, flying right through the rocks and dirt to get outside.

Neko fluttered after him and hit the wall. " _I heard the Fae were powerful, but I never thought I'd see anyone fly through solid earth. We're two hundred feet below ground."_

"I wish I could have talked to him." He picked up the pendant. It was made of gold with a stylized sun over a mountain. What would this do?

* * *

After half a day walking through underground tunnels, they entered the volcano. The air grew stiflingly hot and sulfuric. X cast a spell to filter the air into something he could breathe. Reploids were tolerant of bad air, but they still needed oxygen. He had cast it over Neko earlier.

Now his oracle senses were warning him constantly of hot spots and potential lava flows. These tunnels were old lava flows, empty now. But it was always possible, if Audolen grew bored.

"I think we should go that way," X said.

" _Sulfur is heavy in that area,"_ Neko said.

"There's a possible flare the other way."

They went down the sulfuric passage and came across a large inscription on the wall. In the dragon language, it said, ' _Property of Audolen. Praise him or be burnt_.' X touched the wall. "I think this is the spot to call on him."

Neko sat on his shoulder and observed.

X pulled out his chalk and drew runes for volcano dragon on the floor. " _Mighty dragon Audolen, I wish to speak with you. Please grant me this honor."_

As he stood back up, the lava tunnel vanished. They teleported to a rocky valley. It was a small passage with sheer cliffs on either side. A few steam vents puffed away. In front of him was a haze of hot air. Audolen, most likely.

Then the steam vents turned into lava fountains. There was a mighty roar as Audolen made himself visible. He was smaller than Pashka, but in the narrow valley, he seemed immense. Ending the roar with some chuckles, he made a show of looking in X's eyes. "Is it worth it, little doll, to meet with me in this way?"

Those were simple tricks, X thought. He could mimic the entrance easily. "Very impressive, master Audolen."

"So I have a reploid and an elf. What brings you into my volcanoes?"

"I come to ask for your blessing. I am headed for Heavens Peak. My elf is coming with me."

"Those silly creatures always follow. As for you, white wizard, it has been many years since one of your ring has passed this way."

"I know, but I must."

"You know you must pay tribute to me, then. There's no exceptions."

"I'm aware of that. I have brought this silver ankh for you." He pulled out Sigma's ankh and held it out for Audolen to see.

The dragon took it with his claws. "Interesting, but common."

"It has a good story behind it."

"Then tell."

X explained how the falling stars in the last year of the long winter were really souls called from another world, but how Sigma's soul was dark and possessed the child. He spoke (mostly fabricated based on what he knew) about how the child's good soul got trapped in his own body and how the dark soul planned on corrupting the world's reploids. He told of Roger, whom he had spoken to about this on a few occasions, who risked his own soul to save his brother's, even though they were different species. Then he told how the ankh fit into the story, as the protective charm that Sigma had worn ever since to keep his soul safe. Finally, he told of helping Sigma's patrol and being rewarded with the ankh. "He knew I was a white wizard and that he no longer needed it. So he figured I would make better use of it then he."

Audolen was definitely interested in the story, although the ankh he didn't seem too sure of. "I see." His tone was skeptical.

He looked at the ankh in the dragon's claws and realized why. "Unfortunately, he didn't realize that it is of no use to me either. I believed you might like such a historical artifact, although you may wish to give it protection from stray curses."

"You believe this may attract a curse?"

X nodded. "Perhaps the spirit did not corrupt Sigma, but his ideas did. When I traveled with him last, my danger senses kept on quiet alert. I believe he may become dangerous soon. Giving up his protective ankh may be a sign of spiritual corruption going past it. Therefore, yes, it is weak and potentially dark in nature. But it is an important symbol for what is happening around us."

"Around your peoples, perhaps. Not me." Audolen gazed at the ankh. "It is an interesting artifact. And yet I have many more things with stories as great as that one."

"Would you tell me some, please?" X asked mildly. "I am sure that you could tell stories better than I could. And you must have some amazing tales yourself, given your strength and power."

"Amazing? My story is the best you will ever hear. Do you wish to hear?"

"Oh yes."

"Good." Audolen snapped his fingers and made a marble chair appear. "Sit down and prepare to be amazed by what I have done."

* * *

November 4, XX68

Rock had asked several seers to locate X, but they all reported the same thing. He was gone. Lulani gave the best report. "He found a Mindbane Ivy in full bloom alongside the cave of a mother dragon."

Combine a mind-altering drug with a fierce territorial dragon… no one could stand a chance.

The whole situation shocked most people. Who went into Mirage Swamp willingly? What personal business could X possibly have out there? And even in Mirage Swamp, wouldn't X know Mindbane Ivy? Or at least his elf?

Zero didn't want to believe it. He felt that he would know when X was dead. But according to the oracles, and since their connection had been cut, it was daily coming closer to truth.

* * *

November 6, XX68

Neko had fallen asleep. X managed to stay awake and listen, even though this was the third day he'd spent listening to Audolen go on and on about his exploits and conquests. He nodded, smiled, and laughed at appropriate times. He expressed disbelief when the dragon told of someone insulting him. When he noticed the dragon exaggerating or outright lying, he didn't betray it. The volcano dragon didn't notice any signs of false interest and continued on.

Finally, about midnight, he scratched his chin. "Well you are quite the avid listener. Do you like my stories?"

"They're wonderful. I can only hope that I can remember them to pass them along."

"Brilliant!" Audolen stomped his foot down, startling the elf awake. "Yes, wonderful, that's exactly what you should do. Tell everyone you meet of how fearsome the great and mighty Audolen is. Tell them of how I carve mountains and tame demons. Then I shall have worshippers once again. Starting with you, X."

"I am a white wizard," he said carefully. "My oaths forbid I take any priestly roles. I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I will pass your stories along, though."

"Oh, yes, forgot about that. Inconvenient little oath your ring has. All well, I'll get my priests back soon enough. Now, let's see… no, don't tell me. You were here to get a blessing so you can climb Heavens Peak."

"Yes, I am."

"We shall take care of that right now." Audolen copied Pashka's blessing, only this time it was hot. "There, you have the blessing of fire. And you, little firefly."

" _What about me?"_ Neko said sleepily.

"You'd best be glad your partner has been such a good listener and storyteller. You now have the sense of fire. It will allow you both to remain warm in cold weather and cool in hot weather. And give you command of fire, blah, blah, you'll figure it out. That's good enough for you?"

" _That's great. Thank you, great and fiery Audolen."_

The dragon laughed at that one. "Exactly, firefly. All right, you lot may be excused. I have some important tectonic issues to attend to."

"Thank you so much for your blessings, master Audolen," X said.

"Just remember to tell others of my greatness." Audolen vanished in another simple but flashy spell.

" _Thank goodness,"_ X said in Elf. _"If I had to put up with one more tall tale of his, I'd about scream."_

Neko chuckled. " _So can we sleep now?"_

"Yes, let's find somewhere safe to sleep."

* * *

November 8, XX68

The next morning, the pair climbed one of the smaller mountains. From the top, X could not yet see Ikari Tower. But he felt a dark gathering of aura where it must be. He could also tell a strong gathering of holy aura, from Heavens Peak. But the Tower stood between him and Arwen yet.

At the peak of the mountain, X drew wind dragon in runic symbols in the snow. Then he shouted into the sky, " _Noble Sky Guardian Nokomis, I wish to gain your blessing. Nokomis, please protect me."_

He was answered by a gale. Neko darted into his armor to escape being blown away. A wispy dragon appeared. Her scales were like mother-of-pearl and her wings were like pale white silk. She may have been bigger then Valera, or smaller then Audolen. It was hard to tell because much of her body was like mist.

Her voice was bell-like. "Ah, Wizard X, I wondered if you would call my name."

"You know of me already?"

She giggled. "Of course, silly reploid. I race the wind everyday. I watched you come out with Pashka. I watched you cross the Mirage Swamp in search of Talasi. I watched you listen to Audolen. You have much patience and bravery."

"I try."

"And you're a much better storyteller. You tell it as it is. Audolen embellishes horribly. I bet you, by this time next year, he'll be saying you challenged him to single combat and he won, but graciously gave you his blessing."

"I've had practice."

"That's easy to see. Now, what are you doing here? Few people come anymore, except the darklings. I don't like them. They keep trying to catch me."

"I'm here to unlearn Resurrection, although those darklings would love to capture me as well."

"You have a hard road ahead. It's bad enough trying to get to Arwen, but getting past that black tree is terrible for land creatures."

"I'm still going, but I would appreciate your blessing so that storms and gales don't try to blow me off the mountains."

"They'll try anyways. I don't have control over all of them. But I can bless you and keep my little storms out of your path."

"I would appreciate that."

"I appreciate anyone willing to listen to that vain old lizard. After hearing him out for days at a time as well, I know what it takes. And you already have the trust of Pashka and Talasi. So I shall add my blessing to theirs."

"Thank you, Nokomis." He held still while her winds wrapped around him.

"And for Neko, you now have a wind sense. It will tell you what the weather intends on doing."

" _Okay_ ," he replied, although he didn't sound impressed by that power.

"That's a good thing," X said. "Not even a trained oracle can fully read the weather. That takes extra talent one cannot learn."

" _I see. Thank you, Nokomis."_

"I shall fly close to you," Nokomis said. "I can take messages back to the other three dragons, or check the way ahead. Oh, I'm excited. It's been since my great grandmother's time since a white wizard came on this quest."

"That many generations?" X asked. It didn't seem that long ago since the last white wizards had been around.

" _Air dragons never last long_ ," Neko whispered in Elf.

"Yes, that many," Nokomis said, not understanding Neko's comment. "Now I can't carry you, any of you, so you do have to walk. But the clearest path will be this way." She flew down the northeast side of the mountain.

They followed her toward Arwen and Heavens Peak.


	51. Regrets

December 19, XX68

What should I do? Equinox thought to himself as he stood watch outside. On one hand, Sigma intended to overthrow the humans and set up a government ruled by reploids. Equinox had been taught early on that humans and reploids needed to work together. On the other, he had met several humans who wished to control reploids, and Sigma claimed many more were already controlling reploids. Their methods were subtler than Wily's, but they were still out there.

Not to mention that the Dark Hunters had finally accepted him as one of their own. Once the eyes were gone, things changed. The true selves of the Wily reploids began to show more prominently. Many were twisted from living their whole lives under Wily's control, but some, like Enker, were genuinely likable. Punk still swore and cussed, but he was loyal. Quint still was harsh, but he did show a fatherly affection for Equinox. And they all still believed in violence and warfare.

And what would he say when he got back? Did they know he had killed Forte? Did they know he had killed over a hundred more since? Did he stand a chance at being accepted back into the Light family or was he now unforgivable?

Equinox sighed quietly. Too many questions, not enough answers. At least his thoughts were his own. That was a plus. He tapped a warmth bracelet on his hand. It was freezing this afternoon, almost too much for the bracelet to handle.

His eyes caught movement through the light snow. Someone was coming into view of the Tower. He rushed out to observe. The terrain was rocky, steep and now slick, but Equinox was used to maneuvering the deadly terrain.

The individual paused to view the Tower once it was in full view. Everyone did upon seeing it for the first time. It was such a strange structure. A huge tree in the mountains that was not dwarfed but dwarfing. The blackness of it looked authentically dead. It added sharpness to the aura of despair and madness that clung to the upper Tower. Equinox hated being up here longer than an hour.

Equinox got to a sniping spot. He focused his vision on identifying the person, if possible. It was a reploid with an elf. The individual turned just so. Equinox could see the ruby on his forehead. It was X.

What was he doing here, practically alone? He should hate the Tower, having horrific stories to tell of being locked inside it for the first three years of his life. Was he here to bring it down? Equinox wasn't sure what he should do.

And then X looked right at him.

Equinox felt paralyzed under his gaze. X's eyes emitted bright green light now, so he had successfully become a White Wizard. He knew X saw him, although he was hidden in a well-known nook and over a hundred yards away. This was proven when X gestured him to come, then pointed up towards a cave. Shaken, he did as asked.

In the cave, X was gathering wood he could find to make a fire. But he stopped to greet and hug him. "Equinox, it's been so long. Good to see you again."

Equinox wasn't sure what to think. "Um, yeah… good to see you too, X."

"You know this area better than I do, right? Could you go find me some good firewood? All I have here are various twigs and branches, no good solid firewood."

"S-sure, I can find that." He left, returning fifteen minutes later with five thick logs of various sizes.

"That's great." He set the timber in his fire pit and arranged kindling around it. "Okay, go for it."

His elf jingled and hopped over the fire pit. A lively fire sprang into being. The elf inspected it. Satisfied, he flew back over to X.

"I caught a rabbit a little while back," X said. "Gathered some roots and wild vegetables from the mountainside. It's probably more rustic than you're used to, but you may share." He prepared his things for cooking.

"If you don't mind. Can I help?"

"You can go fill the pot with clean water."

"Sure." Equinox picked up the cooking pot and went to look for clean water. But he wasn't sure what ground water was safe and clean. The safest water he knew of was in Ikari Tower, where it was filtered constantly.

He went ahead and teleported into the Tower's kitchen. There were three cooks who took care of everything. But they were busy, and it was common for spell crafters to slip in for a pot of water. He wasn't bothered while he filled the pot.

On the counter, he noticed several items. Mostly food items, already finished and cooling, or waiting to be made. In particular, he noticed the brown bread that had yet to be baked and the honey rolls. The brown bread was in cans, which would easily be cooked by fireside as well as in an oven. The honey rolls were small, obviously made for the twenty or thirty elves around the Tower. Equinox wasn't sure how many elves there were living here, either bonded or just here. But the honey rolls were ready, and it seemed there were a lot of them.

He glanced at the cooks. Busy. Using his extensive training, he slipped a can of brown bread into one pocket. Then, trickier yet, he wrapped one honey roll in wax paper and slipped that away too. He wasn't caught.

With supper supplies gathered, Equinox teleported back outside and walked into X's cave. X had all his gathered items prepared, so Equinox set the pot on a flat rock placed in the fire. "I've got a couple other things. This still needs to be cooked." He placed the bread can on the flat rock, then set the honey roll in a clean spot on X's bag.

X quickened the water to a boil so he could set the rabbit meat inside. "Good. So, you need to tell me how you have access to Ikari Tower's kitchen."

Even expecting that, it made him nervous. "I didn't mean what happened. I was a foolish child."

"Everyone is a fool in some way. Don't worry, I'm on your side."

He knew that was true. Equinox started telling of how he discovered his father was Ballade, not Forte. X listened closely, sympathetically, as he always did. This encouraged him, so he went on to tell how he killed Forte in a fit of anger, foolishly accepted slavery, suffered under the eye while he killed so many people that Wily found to be enemies, and even up to that day, when Sigma was in control because the Wily reploids owed him so much. And the fact that most of them agreed the human race needed to be subjugated, while he was uncertain of what he should be doing.

Despite the story he was telling, X didn't seem bothered. They were cleaning up their meal as he finished. "What do you think I should do?" Equinox asked.

"You should know what I would suggest," X answered. "I'd say you should go home and let everyone know that you are free and alive."

"But what about what I've done? They'll hate me for it, I know."

"I don't agree with that. But the decision is entirely yours. I'm not seeing any guidance towards one way or another. I don't have control over what I can see, and I probably never will have it."

"That's bad."

X shook his head. "No, that's good. If an oracle such as myself could see every truth, that would mean we live under fate. And I would hate to live under fate."

"I hadn't thought of that. X… was I wrong in what I chose to do?"

He thought for a moment. "You were a fool, I'll agree. But you didn't know or understand the consequences of your actions and anger, so it is forgivable."

Equinox felt better, upon sharing his story and hearing this. "I'll try to choose better in the future."

"Good."

"So what are you doing here? Are you trying to bring down the Tower?"

"Can't do that at this point," X said immediately. "No, I'm going to climb Heavens Peak further in the Forbidden Mountains."

"Why?"

He considered this for a moment, looking at him. It seemed that changed his mind about something. "I… I have a dangerous spell that I learned in becoming a white wizard. I am going to unlearn it, even if I must change Rings."

"That dangerous?"

"It could be. It's called Resurrection. It will revive a recently dead person, at the cost of another's life."

"Oh… that's not good."

"Also, Resurrection has affected all my other healing spells. So now every time I heal someone, I harm another. I knew, when I started, that it is common for a White Ring user to collapse from healing. I've been afflicted by that often. But now that other people are affected, I cannot continue this form of healing. So I will willingly forget Resurrection." X shrugged. "Worst case scenario that I can see is entirely losing my magic powers. But I will risk it. I can find other careers easily."

"Of course you can. I'm not sure about me, though. I've become a master assassin. See?" He pulled out a tiny pin of a bloodied dagger. "I can't get rid of that."

"No, you can't. You can undergo more training to become a Guardian. I don't mean like City Guards, I mean like Sandy is."

Equinox had considered that. He'd considered a lot. "Maybe. You know, I can help you get closer to Arwen through the Tower. I can lead you a day's climb from that city."

But X shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I can't do that. The texts say I must walk through these mountains on foot, at least to Arwen."

"I have a map that Master Wily ordered of the surrounding area." They spent a few minutes looking this over, to see if there were any easier paths to the Fae city.

When they were done, X said, "I would like your help with something tonight if you are willing."

"Sure, what is it?"

"I'd like to speak with the ghosts of Forte and Ballade."

Equinox stared at X.

He seemed serious about it. "They are hanging close to you. Ghosts need to move on before they forget themselves and become troublesome."

"They're close to me?"

"I imagine they have both followed you closely all this time. Their last living thoughts were concern for you. I sense… they're not angry, just worried and sad. I'll give you time alone to think of it. Here is the list of spell components I'll need if you wish to do this." He handed a piece of paper to Equinox. "Take your time. So long as you decide before the dawn's glow begins, we can call them."

"Okay." Equinox took the list and left the cave.

* * *

Equinox approached Quint's living quarters. He felt nervous. Was he really sure he wanted to call his two fathers? He had debated that all night. But he kept deciding on calling them. In order to do that, he had to get X's ingredients, one of which was rare. He could only think of two wizards in the whole Tower that would have such an ingredient in storage. He knocked on Quint's door.

Quint answered, his feelings unreadable. "Yes?"

"Excuse me, uncle, but I've got an unusual spell component for something I'm trying out. The shimmer of a ghast."

"Shimmer of a ghast…" Quint opened his door further, allowing Equinox inside. His quarters were no bigger than Equinox's, but Quint had formed a closet from a fold in space. "This is a difficult component to acquire. You must be close to a ghast. Weaken it, but do not kill it or have it run away. And then you must capture it in a one-pint container. After that, weeks of distilling, clarifying, and drawing will get you this." He pulled out a thimble-sized container made of dark glass. "About twelve to fifteen per ghast of these."

"I'll be careful not to waste it. I can help you catch another, if you need one."

"I trust you with it. But you must show me what spell you're using later."

"All right." Equinox felt glad. That went better than he'd hoped for.

"Are you sure it's the shimmer or is it the shine? If you need the shine, you have to do that yourself."

"What's the shine of a ghast?"

"Same as the shimmer, but it takes five years to draw and you only get three doses."

"Just the shimmer, I'm sure."

"Good." Quint shut his door behind Equinox.

He gathered up the components in a bag for safety and went back out to X's cave. It was midnight and a storm was overhead. Equinox had to activate A-water to avoid getting drenched. The black clouds blocked all light and the lightning strokes made his low-light lens go blind. He used sonar to find his way instead, which he'd acquired during his assassin training.

X was meditating. He nodded, then said softly, "You were distracted in thought on the way here."

"I suppose so."

"You were followed."

Equinox panicked. Even if Wily was gone, chances were that X would get killed now, because of him. "But I…"

"Hush. We all make mistakes."

"But who could have followed…?"

"Many of the warriors in the Tower are better than you simply by experience." He looked out of the cave into the stormy darkness. "Come on in, unless you wish to get struck by lightning."

Neko said something as Quint, Enker, and Punk came into the cave. They ignored Equinox for now and regarded X with varying levels of suspicion. X did not look in the least bit distressed. Although he had spoken of fearing the Dark Hunters even before his curse of fear, he treated them as anyone else.

"So what brings you to this camp?" X asked, as if asking the weather from an acquaintance. (Secretly, inside, his nerves became knotted and his fear threatened to surface.)

"I wanted to know what sort of necromancy Equinox was up to requiring the shimmer of a ghast," Quint replied.

"If you wish to know, I'm summoning the ghosts of Forte and Ballade, once I get the other components prepared." He was grinding several between two rough stones.

The three of them looked at each other, then sat down around the fire. They discussed something among them while X worked, as evidenced by their glances and their com lights flashing. Finally, Enker sent a message to Equinox, "Good. We've always wanted to know how powerful he truly is."

Equinox wanted to plead for them to spare X, but if he did that, they might kill both instead. So he just nodded.

"Sigma won't be glad to hear this," Quint spoke through the com line. "He went to a lot of effort to prove X was dead, I hear."

"Did he?" Equinox replied.

Quint rubbed his chin with his eyes closed. Then he sent a message to the other three, "We'll see how X manages, whether this is illusion or true necromancy. If he does well, we can keep him alive as blackmail against Sigma, should it be needed."

"You think we need blackmail against that baldie?" Punk sent.

"We can't be sure of his intentions at this point. And we can't be sure of ourselves." He sent a glance in Equinox's direction. "We were taught to hate Rock and his child. Now everything is in question, even that."

"Everyone feared us," Enker added. "Even Rock was cautious around us. And then this devil child… he wasn't even a year old, I remember, and he looked me hard in the eyes without flinching to protect Zero. I'm willing, to watch and see."

"Better than trusting baldie," Punk said.

Equinox felt thankful, but didn't voice it.

X gathered up the powder he had created in one hand and dripped the rosemary oil in. Once it was pliable, he rolled it into a ball, then flattened that. Next, in quick motions, he pulled the cork out of the shimmer's vial, put the dough over that, poured the shimmer into the dough, then sealed it up into a completed ball. Although Equinox looked carefully, it appeared as though X got all the shimmer into his dough ball. He had done this particular spell before, or at least one with a similar procedure.

"Equinox, I need a hair from your head."

"Okay." He plucked one out and handed it over.

X wrapped the hair around the ball. "I'm not sure if you have seen any other ghost summons, so I shall tell you the rules of conduct. Do not speak loudly; the ghosts will speak softly, so you should do the same. Do not torment the ghosts. Understand that they cannot lie, although they may refuse to speak of something if it distresses them. Understand that they are trying to move on before they forget who they are, so make no requests that will keep them earthbound longer. Overall, show the deceased respect and they shall no longer haunt you."

Each witness showed that they would honor these rules.

With that, X brought the ball to his lips. "I seek the ghosts that follow Equinox. I seek Forte Wily Light and Ballade Wily." Then he dropped the ball into the fire.

Within a second, the cave was filled with brown smoke. Equinox sneezed, as did someone else. Then the smoke drew back in, forming into two individuals. Ballade sat on Equinox's right, Forte to his left.

"Dad, father?" Equinox asked.

"We thank you for joining us," X said, quieting his voice to a loud whisper.

"Thank you for speaking with us," Ballade said, his voice as soft as X's. It reminded Equinox of listening to the wind through the leaves.

"What keeps you bound here?" X asked.

"I wanted to protect Equinox," Ballade answered.

"I never got to tell Equinox about what happened between the three of us," Forte answered.

"I heard of what happened," Equinox said. "I'm sorry, but I got myself in trouble."

They spoke for the better part of an hour, until Equinox decided that he would go home and the ghosts were settled. Mostly settled; Ballade moved over next to X and whispered something to him. X nodded.

"I am going home," Equinox said firmly to his uncles.

To his surprised, they didn't seem bothered. "If you wish," Enker said. "We won't let others know."

"You might want to teleport out tonight," Punk advised. "It'll be quiet in the Tower for now."

"Okay. Thank you, X. I'll tell everyone else that you're doing fine."

He nodded. "Good." They got up to go, but then X added, "Quint, if you don't mind, I need a moment to speak with you."

Quint looked at him suspiciously, but then nodded to the others to leave.

* * *

"What do you want?" Quint asked X. He accepted that this youth was a true white wizard and oracle. He wasn't sure X would be that forgiving to him.

"Ballade has something he wishes to tell you." He nodded to the ghost.

Ballade bowed his head. "I did not get time to tell Forte why it had to be my child that was sacrificed."

"He was the only one of appropriate age," Quint said out of habit. That was what they had always assumed.

"No. He could have used any of our children, us Rock Killers. It could have been any of us, manipulated into choosing the appropriate mother, then murder just as I felt true love…" his eyes showed a wistful distraction.

"You have little time and energy left," X said softly.

As that was ignored, Quint asked, "Manipulated?"

Ballade came back to the moment. "I did not really choose her. Ikari chose her for me."

"He was enslaved as well."

"No. If Albert is dead and Ikari is alive, then he is the true Master of our clan. And he is not Master Wily's son."

"What?" Quint tried to think of that. "But, but he has those machines on his skull, and father announced him so proudly."

"We are not the children of Albert Wily, Quint. We are the children of Ikari Domino. Listen to my memory. X, can you show such things?"

X nodded. "Tell your brothers we must not be disturbed for this." He waited a moment for Quint's com light to flicker, then put his hands into the fire. "Show us the memory that pins Ballade to Earth."

* * *

August XX51

The wraith laughed at him.

Ballade gritted his teeth and attacked it again. It ran. He followed. Focusing on the invading monster, he didn't notice that he entered the halls where the humans lived.

He summoned a wind-element arrow and quickly fired his spellbow. This one hit true; the wraith disintegrated. He went to fetch his arrow when he glanced into a room at entirely the wrong moment.

Albert's life support saucer was sitting on a table. Ikari was working on it, dressed only in black pants. But the thing that stunned Ballade was the fact that Ikari had black wings, like pictures of twisted angels. A strange scythe was attached to his side. The blade of it looked like pure shadows, insubstantial. But the sight of the edge somehow put a chill in Ballade's soul.

Ikari looked at him. Albert's eyes shifted to look at him. Under the silver eye's command, Ballade waited there quietly.

After some time, the winged man finished his work. The brain saucer lifted off the table. "Ballade, what are you doing here?" Albert asked.

"I was dealing with a wraith. I wasn't paying attention to where it led me."

"It is of no consequence," Ikari said calmly. "You will not speak of this."

"What are you?" Ballade asked.

"Ikari Domino," he replied.

"He is a Universal Predator," Albert said. "Quite literally, in fact. In this form, he can destroy an entire universe for its energy and life."

"It does not take much." Ikari stepped forward, bringing his hand up. As he twisted it around, the space around Ballade began to rip apart.

Alarmed, he gripped his spellbow as he found himself surrounded by nothing. The silver eye attacked him for this fear. But he'd never seen the power to literally ma…ke eve...ry…thi…ng no…th...i...n…g….

And then the nothing was gone, replaced by the usual space. "However, this universe is quite resilient. It will take more than usual to completely destroy it. That is, if this universe is slated for death." He looked to Albert's brain.

"You kill universes?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It is my nature to do so." He spoke with such calm and normalcy. He could have been talking about how the sky was blue. "You cannot fault a Predator from seeking its Prey."

"And you let him?" Ballade asked Albert before he could stop himself. His silver eye rebuked him.

"He can't stop me."

Ballade looked immediately to Ikari. The winged Predator snapped his fingers.

The silver eye went silent.

Ballade's mind spun with confusion. He touched the enslaving eye. "You… released me."

And they were no longer in the Tower. They were in a large dark space. There was a spotlight above them, showing that the floor below was light blue in color. At the edge of the darkness, Ballade could see large gears in motion. He heard a clock ticking, which somehow disturbed him as much as the edge of the scythe.

"Obviously, we can't continue this conversation as you were," Ikari replied. "Or where we were. Someone else might stumble upon us."

"Where are we?"

"Outside of normal reality, that's all you need to know. Now," he took hold of his scythe and unfolded the blade, "my son."

"Huh? Master Wily is…"

"Clinically insane. Senile, mentally eroded, corrupted, deteriorated… however you say it, his mind no longer operates within reason. He has been this way for many years. So many years, indeed, that only one reploid can claim him as his true father. And that would be Forte."

"I guessed that, when I managed to think of it. But what of you and… those things in your head?"

"I had to have some way of convincing others that I was his enslaved son. I am neither a slave nor a son."

"You're not? But you've had tests."

"You can always alter test results. And it was easy to convince him that I, a brilliant and powerful young man, was his son. Even as he was jealous of it later."

"So you made me, and all but Forte."

"He insisted on upgrading Forte on his own, stubborn old geezer. He barely finished the job. After that, his mind was completely gone. A good puppet, he is."

"What are you after?" Ballade wasn't sure if he should be in awe or indignation.

He shook his head as if his audience was missing something obvious. "I destroy worlds. It's what I do. If I cannot take one out quickly, it taunts me. And I must destroy these deadbeat worlds."

"Deadbeat?"

"There was once one universe." Ikari turned his scythe so that the blade was near the floor. He took one hand and waved it in a line. A single bright white line appeared before splintering off into thousands of smaller lines. "But every decision was another possibility of another world. The possibilities become worlds. Some worlds," he touched one. It turned black, "Are too sick and unstable from the start. They do not last long. But many others survive despite instability. These worlds all have stories, but if the stories begin to unravel, the world must be undone."

Ballade watched as Ikari made many lines go black. "Why must they be undone? Don't stories… settle themselves?" He wasn't sure how to phrase that question.

"The bad and sickly worlds must go," Ikari insisted. "All false stories must be erased. Watch. If there are too many worlds…"

He made millions of splintered lines appear. There were so many that Ballade chose to focus on only a small group. These lines were very close. And then, two lines touched. They merged and began to curl around. He touched the curled worlds. "The worlds join."

"And that is terrible. When there are too many worlds, the boundaries between this world and that world become thin. People start to cross. Paradoxes start to rise. Time and Space begin to unravel. Things make less sense." He swung his scythe around, destroying most of the lines. "A Predator like myself is needed to keep everything in line."

Something occurred to Ballade. "But if this world is resilient, it must be healthy and viable. You're not trying to kill this world, are you?"

"This world has some sickness. Every world but the original has some sickness."

"How do you know which is the original?"

"I have never seen it," Ikari admitted. "But I will know it. If my travels between realities take me to the original world, I will know it in my feathers. This one is not it."

"But you live here."

"Only for the moment that I have enough power and opportunity to destroy it. That moment comes. The powers are drawing to me."

Ballade brought up his spellbow. "It's my world! I won't let you destroy it."

"Hold that." He held up his free hand.

He felt stifled. But the silver eye was no longer active. So how…?

Ikari stepped forward, dispelling his line illustration. "My son, it does not have to be your world."

"What?"

He closed his hand, then opened it. And there appeared a statuette exactly like the one Ikari had on his staff. A crystal globe with Death's Angel hovering nearby. Or rather, the Universal Predator.

"You are my son. I am a Predator, neither human nor reploid. If you so chose, you can be a Predator instead of a reploid. You will have the power to destroy an entire universe. You will have access to the knowledge of many worlds. You will even have the magic to adapt Reality to your will. I don't recommend the last be done, save subtly, but I will teach you all your powers if you accept the role."

Ballade was released. His spellbow lowered. "I could be a Predator?"

"There is no kind higher than ours, Ballade. There is no power higher than ours, at least, none discovered. The pettiness of everyday people will no longer matter when you can snuff them out of existence before you can even say 'Death is here for you.'"

He shook his head and stepped back. "It's not right. You can't just… destroy entire inhabited universes."

"It's logical."

"No, it's not. I don't believe you."

"You deny your true father."

He gripped his spellbow again. "I won't do this."

"As you wish."

They were back in Ikari Tower. Albert hovered in the air, apparently having noticed nothing. And the silver eye reawakened. It scolded him for his disarray of thoughts. "You aren't going to just snuff me out?" Ballade asked.

"No," Ikari said, betraying no anger. "I have better things to do."

* * *

December 20, XX68

"And so he set me off to fulfill the destiny he wrote for me," Ballade ended his story with. "Only, X messed him up and our universe did not die on his appointed day. But he must still be trying."

"That bastard," Quint growled.

"That bastard can destroy worlds," X reminded him. "He is a danger, but we cannot take him on recklessly."

"I've passed this knowledge on," Ballade said. "Once I refused his offer to be a Universal Predator, I became powerless… save for the fact that I knew." He sighed. "We were the feared Rock Killers, and I was utterly powerless. I hope, for this life's suffering, that I am reborn into a normal dull life."

"May the greater spirits bless you with peace," X said.

"Thank you, brother," Quint said. "Your last power will not go wasted."

"Be careful, brother." His soul vanished, as Forte's had some time ago.

* * *

Equinox arrived at home around dawn. Roll would be up, he knew. He went inside, nervous. Could he be accepted back? Despite reassurance from his two fathers and X, the doubt still nagged at him.

There had been minor changes, but it was his home as he knew it. It was decorated for Christmas in only a few days. There was a family portrait on the wall, taken when Solstice was a baby. She would be nine now. Equinox hadn't seen her since she was four. Would she remember him?

Roll was in the kitchen, as he knew she'd be. Equinox stood in the doorway. "Hello, mom," he said.

She looked puzzled for a second. Then, "Equinox? You're alive? Wonderful!" She came up and hugged him, laughing.

"It's good to be back."

"Are you okay? You're still a kid, what happened? You sound tired."

"I am. It's been a long night and so much has happened lately."

"I know, like with X and all…"

He shook his head. "No, X is fine, I was just talking to him."

She was stunned to hear this. "When?"

"Just tonight; it's why I've been up all night… well, most of it. It was still hours before dawn where I just came from. He's in the Forbidden Mountains."

"Last we heard, he had died in Mirage Swamp. Sigma came with some of his things."

"We can't trust Sigma anymore. He has control of Ikari Tower now. As for X, he's fine. He helped me a lot, as he always does."

"So what is he doing there? He never told us."

"He didn't?"

"No, he just up and left one morning."

"It is important that he finishes his goal quickly. He's going to Heavens Peak to forget a dangerous spell he's learned. He says he's already accidentally hurt several people, so he must get rid of it."

"I see." Then she smiled. "Oh, but he's alive, and you're back home now. This is wonderful."

Equinox scratched his head. Could he admit to what he done? "Well, I…"

"You should probably get some sleep. Your old room is still available."

"All right. Thanks, mom." Maybe later, he'd get into those things. For right now, he was back home, such a relief that he started crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was tricky to show without breaking the fourth wall (which I did not want to do for this fic), but Ikari only hunts a certain kind of universe: that of fanfiction. So yes, this is the guy who cuts off promising fanfics before they end and leaves reviews that could be considered flames to disillusion fanfic writers. I know that, given how easy it is to write up just anything and post it as fanfiction, that most stories like this are passed off as bad and not worthwhile. But, I don't think that. For a lot of the new writers, it can be a useful learning tool. As for older writers like me, well, it's kind of a guilty pleasure.


	52. The True Enemy

December 30, XX68

Quint, Enker, and Punk carefully staked out the human habitation area. After some discussion, they had decided to treat this as a high-risk mission where not getting caught was the main priority. And in a new environment. They had been in this area a few times, here and there, but not enough to really know it.

About quarter after two, Enker sent a silent alert that he had seen Ikari enter a hidden doorway. He then tracked the human to three copper statues of fierce gargoyles. Ikari triggered a hidden switch on the left statue and input a password on the revealed screen. On the opposite wall, a hidden panel slid away, revealing a curved staircase. He went down. The panel shut automatically.

When his brothers got to him, Enker nodded to the third statue. Quint found the switch and twisted it. The screen asked for a password; following faint signs, Quint put in 'WhiteDwarfStar'. The panel across the hall opened.

The stainless steel staircase was lit at every half-turn. The walls started as concrete, but a floor down, they turned into gray bedrock. Going as silently as they could, the Hunters followed Ikari down the six flights of stairs.

"Does he do this every night?" Punk asked through a secure text-only link.

"He's very fit, for a wizard," Enker said.

"Careful there," Quint replied. "Magic takes a lot out of you; a wizard must be fit to be at full efficiency."

"I know that. I meant on level with someone like you or Rock."

"I never thought he was much of a warrior. Then again, based on this, he might just be one."

"So it's you three following me," Ikari said. He was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. "Rather, sneaking after me."

"We got bored," Quint excused them. "We saw you sneaking around and decided to make a game of it."

He looked at all three of them, but his face was devoid of any emotions. "You're down here, so you must know the password. No point in hiding this from you any longer. Come with me." He went through the next door, a simple wooden door with a handle and keyhole.

The three looked at each other, wary of tricks. But he had invited them in. So they went through the wooden door and, "Holy ****, what is this place?"

The next room was ten stories high. The walls were carved out to be a perfectly round sphere. The platform they were on could ride along the walls in any direction. Right in front of them was a large control panel that looked strangely like a pipe organ. Bright electric lights filled the room; large mirrors set in the walls made sure the room was flooded with light. But the most amazing thing was what the room was holding.

In the center of the room was another sphere, this one holographic and about seventy-five yards in diameter. The sphere hologram was comprised of several levels of information. The first level displayed a world map. The second level displayed a weather map. And the outermost third level displayed runes. Some runes stayed; others changed. The effort to build this must have been a massive enterprise. Only, the Dark Hunters had never heard of such a thing.

"Excusing your language," Ikari said, "this is a real-time global aura analysis diagnostic computer, called HyperGlobe. There is a lot of information being given here; I doubt any of you would grasp it. Even you, Quint."

"You can track any spell use from this location," Quint said. "Or you could inspect the aura of a certain location without ever going there. I've just never seen one this big before."

Ikari went to the control panel and began operating it. And it operated much like a pipe organ was played. As Ikari 'played' the device, the HyperGlobe shifted. One area was highlighted, just over the Forbidden Mountains. That area zoomed in. The aura tracking runes became more complex. Ikari paused right over the Tower. Quint looked, and noticed that X was just out of range. A few runes on the western edge betrayed a White Ring influence.

It must have been ignored, because Ikari zoomed in further, until the aura tracker showed the four of them, and all runes that comprised their auras. "That's part of it, but you will never find another this precise and general. At least, not in this world."

"Not in this world?"

Ikari nodded.

"So you did go to other worlds on father's behalf."

"No. I came to this world seeking your father out."

"But you are Wily's biological son." They didn't want to betray their brother's ghost, even as he was now beyond Ikari's reach.

He shrugged. "So he believed, so I pretended to be. It wasn't hard to convince him of that; he was ready to believe that a powerful and intelligent young man came from him, even as he was jealous of that power and intellect."

"He enslaved you. I've seen those mechanics on your skull."

"That's an illusion. I was never a slave to him. By the time I came to him, he was already half-insane. I did what I could to keep him sharp, but more often then not I had to use command magic on him to make him sensible."

"He was just a brain at the end," Punk said. "I could hardly believe he kept his wits like that."

"No, even before that. Forte was the last one he built entirely, you realize; his first reploid was his last creation."

"What? But we…"

"Yes, Enker, I made you three, not Wily. I let him have credit. I also let Rock destroy his body. There was no way he could have won that fight, but he insisted on it."

"What game are you playing?" Quint asked. "You're under Sigma's control now; are you telling us this because he's trying to undermine our… Master Wily?"

"This is the truth, as your unlucky brother Ballade found out by accident. You ever wonder why he was the one chosen to father the innocent? This was it. I'll allow Sigma to think he is controlling me as long as he is useful to my plans."

"But you passed out with us when Wily died," Enker pointed out. His voice betrayed uneasiness, but his brothers knew his skill at lies.

"That was intentional, along with having Omega attack then. Albert Wily was becoming more of a hindrance, and I knew Sigma would be along shortly. I could have lasted much longer than you. You would have been dead in another six hours, and I could have revived myself from the self-induced coma at any point. I will work with Sigma until he is useless to me. Anything that is worthless to me dies."

Quint felt he was baiting them, so he could boast about being a Predator, maybe making them the same offer. But instead of taking the bait, he blinked at Enker. Enker brought out his spear and impaled Ikari in the back.

There was a taunt on the eldest Dark Hunter's tongue, about getting vengeance for their brother. But it evaporated when Ikari's cloak melted into a pair of black-feathered wings. This revealed that Enker had hit him cleanly. Too cleanly. There was not a drop of blood, nor a sign of internal damage. Just a large metal spear going right through Ikari's torso, the spearhead five inches out from his chest.

Enker didn't swear often, but this time he said, "Oh shit."

"I'm guessing you somehow got hold of Ballade," Ikari said, his voice filled with deadly calm. "Clever."

Enker tried to yank his Mirror Spear out of Ikari's body while Quint and Punk hit him simultaneously with spells. Quint used Ray of Lightning while Punk used Beta. Ikari thrust himself off of Mirror Spear and settled on hovering in the HyperGlobe. He cast a spell. Quint didn't know what spell he cast, but he sure as hell knew that a normal wizard could not cast that potent of a spell instantly. Violet missiles with feathering tendrils flew mercilessly at them, each more damaging than the last.

Punk got MetaGuard up first, but it soon eroded. Quint managed HellGuard, followed by another MetaGuard, this time from Enker. But both guards eroded in a minute. After getting slammed with three missiles, Punk collapsed to the floor.

"You amuse me, my sons," Ikari said. "You don't stand a chance and you try. Thanks to Albert's greed, there is no one left to challenge me. Not even your world's dear hero Rock can do a thing against my magic."

Enker tried a spell he used rarely, Mirror Dance. It was a Sorcerer's spell, one he called absurdly powerful to the target and anything nearby. While Mirror Dance did smash the HyperGlobe's console and three-quarters of the lights in the room, Ikari had not a scratch on him.

Quint took a chance on a spell that was long in casting, for him anyways. While he was working on the calculation, Ikari took no time in summoning a blood red ball of energy and throwing it at Enker. It hit with no apparent damage, but Enker shrieked. The sound nearly interrupted Quint's spellcasting. It caused a sickening feeling in his gut; it reminded him of when they had locked X in with the Paranoid Mirror.

Ikari considered how to take out Quint.

Quint cast Holy.

This time, there was a visible effect: spidery black lines spread rapidly across Ikari's bare chest. He grunted, more startled that Quint managed to hurt him than anything. But Quint felt that he didn't stand a chance of winning in the long run.

He grabbed his two brothers by telekinesis and dashed over to the wooden door. He put the gold Key of Shadows in there and entered Shadow Palace. Several years back, Quint managed to put an extra enchantment on his set of Shadow Keys, so that he always wound up in a hallway of useable doors. It made things much easier, especially since he didn't have to run into the emo bastard that was running the Palace these days.

He put the gold key into the door across from him and recited an unusual request. "Door of Shadow, please answer my plea. Send me to a temporary door in the Forbidden Mountains, where my mind eye sees."

He opened the door. It let him out in the right area, an overhang on a mountain path. The magic door vanished into thin air, as it must have appeared. Under suspicion, Quint dropped the keys. All three landed safely, only to shatter seconds later.

"Go ahead," Ikari's voice whispered into Quint's ear. Quint tensed.

Enker pulled off his armor quickly. He also undid the top part of his jumpsuit underneath, although the air was brisk and cold. He looked okay, but he cringed. "Get off me," he pleaded, scratching something only he could see.

"Try to do something against me. It would not be fun if I met no resistance." The sound of his voice faded away.

Trying to shake it, he examined his brothers. Enker would be okay for a few minutes. Quint pulled off Punk's armor so he could examine his damage. His eyes were trying to focus and stay awake. After swearing quietly for a bit, he said, "Did you ever guess that black and white punk was powerful? He seemed so submissive."

"He honestly could have killed us," Quint answered. "He was using easy spells."

"We're going to die, aren't we?" Enker asked, now rubbing both arms against each other.

"He's not letting us back in. But he's not going to kill us now." But considering Ballade's fate, Quint wondered if dying now would be the lenient path.

"What can we do about him?" Punk asked.

"You be quiet and rest," Quint said. "You've taken the worst damage."

"Is there some water so I can get this thing off me?"

"It's in your head."

"It is?" Enker stopped and examined his arms. Before long, he rubbed them together again. "It's got to be under my skin where you can't see it. So what can we do about him? If the three of us can't handle him… and if Rock can't…"

"There may be one person who can defeat him," Quint said. "Think of it. He said Albert's greed left no one to challenge him. That could mean that it would take a White Wizard to defeat him. And one White Wizard has walked right by the Tower without Ikari noticing a thing."

"We have to help X?" Punk asked, distastefully.

"Last night was a fluke," Enker said, speaking quieter now. "There's no way in hell he'll trust us twice."

Quint heard a noise down the path. "If my calculations are right, that is him." He stood up. "I told you Ballade's story. Ikari is out to consume the power of our universe. If X dies, there goes our hope for a future."

"I can't stand that brat," Punk muttered.

Ignoring that, Quint stepped onto the path the younger reploid was traveling. The elf darted in close, to a defensive position. "You've been hurt badly," X said sympathetically.

He was in some pain, but "My brothers are worse off. I know we have no right to ask you for help, given…"

"Where are they?" X interrupted.

"Over here; there's a shallow cave."

X went past Quint. Neko jingled for a bit.

"Right, thank you," X replied. He touched Enker's shoulder and spent a moment dispelling the painful illusion. "There's a stream nearby where you should wash your arms and use a clarifying spell, so the scratches don't become infected."

"Sure." Enker left to do so.

He then went to heal Punk. He was watched closely the whole time, by both Dark Hunters. The wide crimson marks took several spells before X figured out which one was appropriate. "You three fought Ikari," he commented.

"How do you know?" Quint asked.

"Vengeance for your brother. Even if I did not know that," he swept his hand over Punk's wounds, "this is alien magic. There is only one true alien wizard in our world."

"X, you are the only threat to Ikari in our world," Quint said. "I used Holy against him; it damaged him slightly. He mentioned that Master Wily's greed eliminated anyone who could be a threat. And yet, you seem to have slipped his notice. We don't believe that he knows you are here."

X finished healing Punk before speaking. "You should sleep tonight. It would do you good."

"I don't trust you," Punk replied.

"Then trust me to say that after that fight, we all need a rest," Quint countered tensely.

Punk shot him a glare and moved toward the wall of the cave, where he could observe all.

"Do you mind unlatching your armor?" X asked. "I give you my word that I will never willingly harm a patient."

"Not that we have much of a choice," Quint said, doing as requested. "Ikari cut off our ties to the clan and the public fears us."

He went right to work with his healing magic. "I am assuming you to be strangers, since the enslaving eyes warped your personalities. Therefore, I won't attack unless you attack first."

"What about Ikari?"

"I have more pressing business to take care of now. I know his threat, but I cannot take him on…" X paled.

"What?"

He put the spell over the last of Quint's wounds. "You're right, you're not as bad. Excuse me." He ran out of the shallow cave, leaving his backpack behind.

"He's an idiot," Punk said. "This is how he treats strangers?"

"Why are you so against him?" Quint asked.

"Why are you suddenly for him? That little bastard is just like his father, only ten times smarter. If he could make fools out of us at three years old, what's he going to do now?"

"He's graciously accepted us when he should hate and fear us… even discounting the time we locked him up with the Paranoid Mirror. And he's our best shot at killing Ikari for Ballade's sake."

"I still don't like it," Punk grumbled. He had a reason to grumble even more a moment later. "What the hell did you do to him?"

"I'm sorry," X said, distressed enough to have watery eyes. He placed Enker on the floor.

Quint went over to look. Enker's skin was pale, as if he'd faced a drain type spell. His breath sounded labored and ragged. When he picked up his brother's hand, it was limp and cool. "What did you do?"

X put his hand over Enker's chest, then withdrew it. "You… you should try to fix his breathing. I wasn't thinking."

His elf chimed and patted X's shoulder.

Quint put his hand on his brother's chest and calculated a healing spell for his lung system. It always took him so long to do White equations. He shot Punk a look, to keep him from picking up Enker's spear and smashing it over X's head. "Explain yourself."

"This is exactly why I'm out here," X said. "There is a secret White spell called Resurrection."

"Oh god I hate that spell," Punk said. "Master Wily used it on me three times. It's better than that undead-making Reanimate, but the **** thing hurts for hours."

X nodded. "Wily would have had no problem with it. When you learn this spell, it alters your healing powers. When I heal one person, I harm another. If I use Resurrection for some reason, it kills someone else instead. I'm sorry I didn't think of it earlier. I have no control over who gets harmed."

Enker's eyes blinked. "Who hit me?" he asked in a whisper.

"Don't worry about it," Quint said. "Get some rest and you'll be fine by morning."

"Is it fine?" X asked.

"There's no permanent damage; just an energy drain." He closed Enker's eyes gently, enchanting him straight into a deep sleep. "So if a dangerous secret spell brings you here, there must be a foci of the White Ring here."

"Yes. It's on Heaven's Peak. And the texts I read say I cannot take shortcuts this deep in the sacred range. I must get there on foot. I have a wind dragon for a guide."

"There's dozens of demon nests closer to Heaven's Peak," Quint said. "We'll escort you there."

* * *

January 1, XX69

X held the first half of night watch. Quint got up and insisted he get a few hours of sleep as well. The youth agreed and enchanted himself to sleep. Watching him, Quint felt deeply inspired. It took effort to forgive a painful past. He knew it was a long shot in asking for X's help. But for him to agree to help without hesitation, X was extraordinary.

He was pushed to be that way. Quint knew that he was part of the cruelty. Even when he had the silver eye, the thirteen hours X spent with the Paranoid Mirror had haunted Quint as well. It was impossible to forget the screams, both from him and Zero. He could remember the blond boy begging the Hunters to let X go. In the end, Quint couldn't handle it and left.

How many times had he wished he had pulled X out of that chamber, even if it meant death? Secretly, many times. Now he depended on the man that child had become and he could hardly believe his acceptance. He wondered if X secretly still hated them. Was that why he needed to be enchanted asleep? Or was his loving heart too upset over hurting Enker?

When dawn began to color the sky, Punk woke up. He left the cave for a while. When Enker was getting up, yawning repeatedly, he came back with coffee and other food supplies. He wouldn't say where he got them and no one asked. X would be asleep for another good hour before his enchantment wore off.

Punk made the coffee silently. He said nothing until Enker had a few sips to wake up. "So we're not even going to discuss it?"

"Huh, discuss what?"

"You can discuss it," Quint said. "I'm going."

"Discuss what where?"

"He said we're going with X," Punk said bitterly, stressing 'we're'.

Enker didn't seem bothered, glancing out the cave entrance in case of any dangers. "So?"

"He nearly killed you!"

That startled him. "What?"

"It's not like that," Quint said, holding his hand up to keep Punk from getting too aggressive. He explained to Enker what had been discussed after he went to wash up his arms.

"I see." He took another sip of coffee. "We should go with him. Goodness knows those nests…"

"How could you two be thinking that?" Punk asked in disbelief. "He's our enemy."

"He was our enemy," Quint said. "Right now, it's as he said. We're strangers, and he just happens to know powers that we need. However, he is young and lacks our battle experience. He won't make Heaven's Peak alone."

"And we have much to repent for, even as it was not our will," Enker added. "Now that we have control of our own souls, we must make the right decisions. And guiding him feels right."

"I don't like that you're doing this." Punk abruptly teleported out.

"What?" Quint went to the spot where Punk had been and attempted to trace. But his brother had made an untraceable jump. "How could he do that? I know it's strange to guard him, but Ballade…"

"We hardly know ourselves," Enker said. "How can we expect to know each other?"

* * *

January 27, XX69

Because Ash was a new commander, his patrol was kept small. Only Sandy and Zero were with him. Because they were a new and small patrol, they were sent only on minor patrols. This round, they were guarding a trader through a quiet valley.

"The inventory comes out clear," the trader told them. "Thanks for helping me out."

Ash nodded. "Any time, sir."

When the trader went off to bed, Sandy rolled his eyes. "Not that we're doing much. Didn't even see a thieving goblin today."

"It's better that we start out slow," Ash said. "My dad told me to build a reputation of reliability and politeness. Those who rise meteorically fall just as fast."

"I suppose." He still seemed restless.

"I never got to tell you guys about the call I got just before we left," Zero said. "Equinox came back home safe."

"That's good," Sandy said. "How's he doing?"

"Mom told me he was uneasy, but he's healthy. It sounds like he got enslaved by a gold eye, but all of Wily's slave children have been freed recently."

"So we're going to find their true colors in the next few months," Ash thought out loud. "Although I don't expect any of them to come out fully sane after mental slavery."

"Too bad your brother went through it."

"I hope he's all right; Mom tells me that he was kept as a kid." He paused a moment unsure of how he felt about it. it was good that he was back, but Zero also wished that he could get back home to see him. Then again, he smiled as he said, "But there's even better news with his coming back."

"What could that be?"

"X is alive."

"Great!" Sandy grinned. "I couldn't believe that a swamp defeated him."

"According to Equinox, X is still in the Forbidden Mountains, trying to reach Heaven's Peak. It was something about a cursed spell he needed to forget; I didn't really understand it."

"I still don't understand why he didn't tell us he wanted to go there," Ash said. "We could have gone with him if he really had to leave."

" _But we would have tried talking him out of it_ ," Xenophon said from where he was perched on Zero's shoulder. _"I hope Neko's up to helping him."_

"Neko got him through Mirage Swamp," Zero replied quietly. "They should be fine."

"Was he the one to free the Wily slaves?" Ash asked. "It seems like something he would do."

Zero shook his head. "No. That was Sigma's patrol."

"Really? What were they doing in the Forbidden Mountains?"

"He didn't say. But X did say that he believes Sigma can't be trusted. He was the one who told Rock that he was dead, after all."

Ash scratched his head. "I always thought something was up with him."

"Then again, you were jealous when he got accepted as commander far younger than you did," Sandy teased him.

"I followed the proper routes. I avoided any shortcuts based on my father's position. He's only eighteen; he shouldn't be commanding a patrol the size he has. Maybe I am jealous, but it doesn't excuse him from explaining how he got so far so fast."

"He took advantage of his father's position," Zero said.

"Exactly."

"At least Master Wily is dead."

"Equinox says that?"

Zero nodded. "The slaves couldn't be freed unless he was killed. Equinox witnessed the death."

"That's good," Sandy said. "Maybe all those monsters he left behind will finally stop coming."

* * *

It was around two in the morning. Zero and Xenophon were on night watch. The valley was still quiet. The moon was a few days from being full, so they could see well. Zero was quiet, listening and watching for anything out of the ordinary.

However, Xenophon was first to notice. He had been flying around the campsite, inspecting things. Now he flew back to Zero, his aura flickering in alarm. " _Zero, there's something odd you must see."_

He got up. "What is it?" he asked quietly.

" _You need to get higher to see."_

Zero summoned his broom and flew up to see what was alarming Xenophon. His elf pointed him to the western cliff. Above the valley floor, trees were sparse and the land open. There had been nothing to see by daylight. But by moonlight, Zero could see a large mansion. Almost a castle.

"That should have been obvious earlier," Zero said.

" _I know,"_ Xenophon replied. " _That place is saturated with magic. Shadows and White magic, particularly the sort associated with the undead. But also fire."_

"White magic, shadows, and fire? Do you sense the Fire Dragon Omega?"

" _I can't tell from here. Do you sense anything?"_

Zero looked over the mansion of shadows. "I think I should return to the ground before I'm noticed. I don't know, but I don't like it."

Xenophon followed him down. " _I'd look into it, but I don't think one should go there alone. Not after what happened last time."_

"We'll be careful not to let that happen again," he said in reassurance.

* * *

January 28, XX69

Zero told Ash and Sandy about the moonlit mansion while they traveled the next day. "I'm concerned about it. It didn't feel right."

"Where is this building?" Ash asked.

"We should be able to see it now." Zero pointed out a monolithic rock that had been by the mansion. It was alone by daylight. "It was right there, I'm certain."

"You remember the story King Gage told of Shadow Palace by moonlight?" Sandy asked the other two.

They nodded. Whenever there was a powerful Master of Shadows, parts of the Palace could appear in reality, but only by moonlight. It was for those times that the Dust Bunny King line trained youths for battle. "I heard every Dusty Blade has been in use for the past decade," Ash said. "Gage may have sensed this was coming."

"A Shadow Master is as bad as a White Wizard with an evil heart," Zero commented. "Seems like we're in for another period of war."

"And we still have to deal with what Wily left behind," Ash added. "Let's hope that mansion stays there. We need to look into it."

Sandy nodded. "Right. Never deal with shadows alone."

"We have to wait until we get this guy to Meridell."

"You realize that by the time we get there and get back here, it will be a full moon?" Sandy asked. "To shadows, it won't matter, but the undead will be at their most powerful."

"We must prepare well."


	53. Snowy Peaks and Vampire Hunts

January 29, XX69

At the end of the mountain path, there was a black stone archway. It was etched with the name 'ARWEN' on the keystone; the sun-and-mountain symbol on Mau's pendant matched two on the arch. Under the arch was a reddish-brown brick path. The path extended past the arch and into thin air.

"We never been in Arwen before," Quint said quietly.

"I don't see any signs of violence or forced entry," Enker commented after examining the ground.

"I wonder if this city is in the fairy realm," X asked aloud. He glanced at the pendant, then stepped onto the brick path and under the archway. When he came to the end, he didn't hesitate to move on.

The reddish-brown bricks raced out from under his feet to reveal a large network of pathways and plazas. Buildings made of ash, clay, and colored stones filled the mystical town. Along the sides of the town were brick staircases which led to eight other levels, all filled with more buildings. A series of concrete pipes apparently took water from building to building. Strangest of all, the secret city was supported only by magical platforms and rods.

Quint and Enker came in behind X and took a moment to look over the city. X turned his attention to the young man in front of him. Several inches taller than X, he had light blue skin with darker blue tattoos all over his body, including a white five-pointed star on his right eyelid. He had chestnut brown hair, black eyes, and a pointed nose, resembling a rat's. He even had fine black whiskers, only two inches long. "Twei-pash te, X."

"Mau Lin?"

He nodded, then changed to an accented Common. "Yes. Thank you very much for rescuing me from Mirage Swamp." He bowed deeply.

"It was no trouble."

He held out his hand. "You should come to my home, so I can thank you properly. You are both invited as well."

"We'll be glad to come." He shook Mau's hand, then glanced back at the two Hunters. They simply nodded.

"Come with me." He led them up six levels. His house was a good size and decorated on the outside with yellow porcelain triangles.

He opened the door and waved them inside. A woman met them; she had the same blue and black skin, but with different white marks. Birthmarks, X supposed. They spoke for a while in their own language. Then Mau said, "This is my wife, Shea. I fear only I can speak with you. No one in Arwen speaks Common as I do."

"That's fine," X said.

They had dinner of stir-fried greens, mashed tubers, and fresh herb bread, with a plum soup for dessert. Mau and Shea were gracious hosts despite the language barrier. X talked with them and their neighbors, curious about this secret village. Quint and Enker were quiet, but polite. The Arwen dwellers seemed watchful at first, but soon treated them kindly.

The people of Arwen were properly called Fae. The Fae were once a thriving civilization, living harmoniously with the humans. Mostly harmoniously, anyhow. In that time, they had been able to assume their animal shapes whenever they wanted and with training, assume other animal forms as well. They had been strong in magic. While humans (and reploids) could only be strong in one Ring of magic at a time, Fae were equally strong in all Rings.

Presumably because he just met them, but the Fae were reluctant to tell X what happened. He could guess it was something like a war, or a tragedy. Now the Fae were restricted to a few villages like Arwen spread across the world. Every time they left their villages, they had to go in their animal form.

And they were equally curious about them. Fae had seen reploids around, but none had entered their villages before. They were surprised to find that they had free minds and souls. One didn't believe that they were built with manmade parts until X let him sense through his body and feel his power core pulsing.

After dinner, they were invited up to the community house to meet with the village elder. There was a long discussion, about Sigma, Ikari, and Heaven's Peak. In thanks for this information and for rescuing Mau, the elder said that in the morning, he would open a pathway to Heaven's Peak.

* * *

February 3, XX69

They stayed for a few days with the Fae, due to a winter storm. The elder promised that as soon as the weather cleared, they would make a path to Heaven's Peak. X did not mind, spending his days asking Mau many questions on magic and the Fae.

X got up shortly before dawn to find that Neko wasn't in the room. He sat up and felt for the elf's aura. He was up above the roof of the community building. A twinge in X's soul told him that Neko was worried or upset about something.

I miss feeling that about Zero, X thought as he got up. Was there a way to restore their link? If there was, now and here were not the time and place to find out. X wrote a note on the table for his two guards. Quint was on another guest bed asleep, while Enker was sleeping while sitting. He had commented last night that sleeping in a chair was no problem and comfortable compared to his quarters in Ikari Tower.

X climbed the town, having to use a Wall Walk spell to get up to the highest rooftop. Neko's aura light was visible, hovering in a single spot. Noticing X approaching, he floated over. _"I'm sorry; did I worry you?"_

"Not much. I was able to find you quickly." X sat down near where Neko had been hovering. "But what are you worried about? I can feel it."

Neko landed on his shoulder. _"I had a strange dream of Xenophon and it worries me. I dreamed that a shadow swallowed him whole."_

X put his hand on Neko's aura and closed his eyes. He could see the dream. "Luna Trap. It's a sort of plant that grows in areas heavy with Shadow magic. That's what you saw."

" _I wish I could still feel him. Was it real or just a dream?"_

"I think that was your connection."

Neko darted into the air, his aura flickering with anxiety. _"So he's in trouble? Where is he? Where's Zero?"_

"Hold on. I also feel that this is a distraction."

" _Huh? A distraction?"_

X nodded. "I felt many distractions to tempt me when I was on my dream world quest. I had to ignore them all, even the one that cut off me and Zero. I know it's hard. The powers of darkness are trying to call us away from Heaven's Peak."

" _Powers of darkness… like the shadows."_

He shook his head. "No. Shadow magic is not evil, like White magic is not evil. They are not completely good either; it all depends on how you use them. But there are evil powers in the world that try to corrupt all."

" _I see. I suppose I should trust Xenophon… but can we go find them after we are done here?"_

"Yes. After I have completed my task, we'll go locate Xenophon and Zero."

" _Okay. I can… someone comes."_ He went back to X's shoulder.

X looked around, soon spotting a reploid's aura coming up. "It's Enker." He got up and went to meet with him. "Sorry to have left you sleeping."

Enker didn't betray any emotions. "I wasn't asleep. I was on guard."

"Oh. But you seemed asleep."

"Your third eye isn't perfect. Besides, you shouldn't have assumed it was me coming up."

"I can recognize auras."

"Our clan has been specifically trained to mimic each other's auras, just in case. And I'm sure my brother and I will be proven exceptions. There is quite a lot of hatred for your father and you left in the others. The two of us, you may trust. But even Punk now will be untrustworthy."

X flinched a bit from the stern tone he was using. But no, this was an honest warning, given to help protect him. He sighed. "I'm sorry to have split your group like that."

Enker crossed his arms and looked at X critically. After a moment of silence, he said, "Hmph. You have nothing to be sorry for in that."

"If there's anything I can do for your help…"

"Don't get yourself killed before you can face Ikari Domino."

* * *

February 5, XX69

The path to Heaven's Peak was worthy of the Fae's skill in magic. It consisted of seven brick tiles that were capable of floating on air. X, Quint, and Enker were able to walk along the tiled path easily, as the last tile would be transported ahead to become the first. For much of the trip, Neko stayed hidden. X felt that he was still nervous about the two Wily reploids, his dreams, and the breathtaking altitude that they were at.

"It's a good thing you rescued Mau," Quint said when they were halfway across. "To climb Heaven's Peak otherwise would take five days."

"I just hope the winds don't pick up," Enker said, keeping his eye on the flow of air and water.

"I have the protection of Nokomis, a wind dragon," X told them. "She is keeping the air still and dry."

The walk was a good hour and the Dark Hunters weren't much for conversationalists. But they did prove their worth as guards, often spotting a monster and knocking it out of the sky before X even knew it was there. Their goal was becoming clear when Quint grabbed X's shoulder. "Enker, front point."

He nodded and stepped ahead of X. The tiles stopped moving. "What is it?" X said quietly.

"Tengu. Cast A-wind."

X didn't ask further, just cast the wind spell block over the three of them. And in good time; a blast of wind flew right through them. It was strong enough to pass through X's block, but not strong enough to damage them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pair of flying beings coming at them. Probably reploids.

"You both run," Quint said quietly.

"Brother?" Enker sounded worried.

"Go, for Ballade."

"Sometime, I'll hate you properly for this." Then Enker glanced at X.

"Thank you," X said, then ran. Six blocks hurried along with him and Enker. One remained with Quint. The other tried to reach X and Enker. But Quint cast a shield bubble that kept them both in his area.

As they reached the stone platform that was the White ring foci, there was an explosion in midair. The seventh block returned to them. Enker removed his helmet and was quiet for some time.

When he put the helmet back on, X asked, "Why are you going so far for me?"

"Many reasons. Mostly, we learned that Ikari is our father. Knowing that, he led Ballade to fall in love when he knew what fate his child held. He forced us to lock you in with the Paranoid Mirror and then stay for seven hours. But Ballade had to stay the full thirteen hours, when he'd already killed his wife and prepared his child for the sacrifice. No one deserves a day like that. For that day, Ikari must die a thousand deaths."

"I'm only capable of one."

"That's more than anyone else is," Quint said. But he wasn't there in person, just as a misty spirit.

Enker looked startled at the ghost. "Quint?"

"You're more rational than most new dead," X commented.

"I knew exactly what I was doing and I know I don't have long because of that," he explained. "X, do whatever you need to do here, and then get away quickly. Enker, you should take him up to the old station."

Enker closed his eyes, thinking and nodding slightly. "Does that train run anymore?"

"We must hope that it does. The Fae will find their own escape if trouble comes to their doorstep. I have some other unfinished business. If things go well, you will be met at the station by new allies."

"How do you know they are allies?"

Quint paused. "I hope they are. If they listen to me, they should be. Whether they come or not, leave the Mountains. Find Zero and Equinox. They should be sufficiently trained in battle to counter your inexperience. I'm certain once you three meet, Ikari will be there. Do what you must to rid the world of him."

Then his ghost vanished.

"It's all so strange," X said, trying to make sense of all that was going on. "I still fear you all some, and he…"

"Don't waste time," Enker said sharply. "You are used to thinking, but now you must act."

"Right, right."

" _I'll be watching you too,"_ Neko said, finally appearing.

He smiled some at the reassurance. "Thanks." He turned to look over the lonely monument.

The altar at the top of Heaven's Peak was a ten-foot obelisk in the middle of a large flat rock. There were six slits cut into it; X noted that they would catch the equinoxes and the solstices. Sighing, he caught himself before he thought too much into it. It was hard to stop thinking and act. But Master Domino was possibly aware of his presence here.

X began a prayer to remove Resurrection from his soul. When he started out, he had been willing to give up all magic to get rid of this troubling spell. But with Quint's sacrifice, he knew he had to keep his magic, and the ring it lay in. Just without that spell…

* * *

February 5, XX69

Patrol 29 was walking on the western cliff toward the monolith. The sun was setting. No buildings were to be seen. The sun went down; on the opposite horizon, the moon came up, just coming off its full phase. Nothing was there. Zero blinked, and the mansion was right by the monolith, as he'd seen it. The shadow aura felt stronger from here, as did a fiery sensation that pierced deeply into his skeletal structure.

"That's a definite manifestation," Sandy said.

"Thanks, Mr. Obvious," Ash joked.

"I feel the Fire Dragon," Zero said. There was an uneasy moment of silence. Being there, he felt some kind of draw to go in. But he knew he shouldn't.

"I wish we had a fourth," Ash said. "I don't want you in there if the Fire Dragon is around, but I don't want you alone either. Or anyone to go into that place alone."

They all went on alert as a mass teleport spell targeted an area close to them. They ducked behind a boulder to observe unseen. When the spell completed, two additional Patrols were there, 118 and 19. They observed the moonlit mansion.

"We shouldn't engage the vampires this soon," Boomer said. "They will be strong tonight. We need to observe the area and challenge them no more than two hours before dawn."

"Two hours?" Vile questioned. "We can't be caught in there when the moon goes down."

"If we knew how to work the shadows, we would be able to last past dawn. There are no mirrors here."

"None of us know how to work shadows," Sigma said.

Ash looked at the other two and nodded. He got up and approached them, making just enough noise to let them notice. "These two have been trained to defeat shadows and illusions by the Dust Bunny King," he told Sigma.

The three groups studied each other. "Commander Washington," Boomer said in polite respect.

Ash nodded. "Commanders Boomer and Sigma. What brings you here?"

As the eldest leader there, Boomer said, "We're here to avenge the lives taken by the reploid vampires. Legend has it that killing the lord will free the followers. What brings you here?"

"Zero and his elf Xenophon noticed this place of shadows several nights ago. We came back to investigate, in accordance to our training."

Sigma asked, "Can the three of you bring down that place?"

"We know how," Ash said. "However, there is a being inside which has threatened to destroy Zero. As he has sensed this spirit within the shadows, I cannot allow him to go inside. I'll make a deal with you. Leave someone behind with Zero so that the spirit does not find him alone. With that, Alisander and I will cause the shadows to collapse and weaken. Once this manifestation of Shadow Palace is gone, the vampires will be at your mercy."

Boomer nodded. "That is a reasonable plan and solves a problem we had ourselves. Zero, we'll leave my healer Malcolm with you. We plan on teleporting out anyone who becomes injured, so the blood does not attract the vampires until we are ready to strike."

Zero nodded. "Our training includes how to heal injuries induced by shadow magic. I'll assist with any healing needed."

"Good. Thank you for your assistance, Ash."

"No problem."

* * *

All night long, Malcolm and Zero listened to com talk about the vampires. There were nine of them, including the lord. It matched the dream Zero had when the Fire Dragon came to life. Or rather, undead life. Except when he had the dream now, he recognized the skeletons that became. Star and Sonya Guise, Zeta Cain, a white fox named Shabrengo Tritarch, a one-eyed winged Shade Wily, his son Dark Necrobat, and two others he hadn't found out names or forms for yet. These were the vampires that loyally followed Omega.

The battles were frustrating. Although the three squads had the vampires outnumbered, they were out powered. The vampires could heal by fire. Sonya could heal by water too, while Shade and Necrobat could heal fast by shadow. They were all weak to solar magic. Holy too, as Sigma soon found out and passed along. But still, nothing that would put them to rest fast. Not even the spell Heavenly Sunbeam, which Dynamo was casting every chance he got, could hurt the vampires faster than they could heal by magic. Or by draining life and blood. An hour before sunrise, most of the mortal reploids and the handful of humans there were out with Zero and Malcolm.

Vile grumbled while Zero took care of a shadow-infected wound. "I suppose this rules out any further attacks against the group as a whole."

"No kidding. Careful; this stings."

He only grimaced when Zero cast the spell.

"We've got to the connection point," Ash reported over the com. "We're getting ready to disconnect. The building will vanish, so be prepared to tumble."

"Good," Zero commented, off the com line. "That means we just have to wait for dawn to strike the vampires."

They kept working; assessing which vampire had bit which individuals and healing the other wounds. Fortune was with them in that Omega had so far not bitten anyone, although one unfortunate human had died by his magic. And none of the vampires had come out to their makeshift hospital. That is, until…

"We've got one of the females," an earlier victim called.

Zero looked up. It was one he didn't know yet: curly blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, wearing a stunning red dress. And wearing a white lily hairclip that looked much like the one Iris had used to stop Firingi with. In fact, Zero could almost swear it was that hairclip in the vampire's hair.

Xenophon sensed his feelings. " _Careful,"_ he warned. _"That clip might be mass produced, therefore meaning nothing."_

"I am Chantal Angelique, you lowlife," the vampire said in a haughty voice. "I am a star, much better than that silly girl Iris."

The guard had his weapon out, but didn't fire. Elsewhere, Malcolm was busy enhancing the holy shield around the grounds. Zero asked her, "What are you talking about?"

"She does make for a pretty thrall, I admit."

" _Zero!"_ Xenophon called. But it was late; he was already outside the shield.

"You'd better not have harmed Iris," he growled.

"So you're her pretty and away boyfriend." Chantal went sly on him. "A shame she has to cheat on you for attention."

"That's a lie." He brought out Zetsabre and used Sunstrike on her.

In response, she ran off. "Do you think so? Would you like to ask her?"

" _Don't do it_ ," Xenophon tried again.

But Zero ran after her.

* * *

Zero had lost Chantal somewhere in the grand hallway. He was right exactly where he knew he should not be. When he paused, Xenophon landed on his shoulder. Feeling ashamed, he said, "I'm sorry. That was really dumb of me."

" _It's a mistake you make once and should never make again_ ," the elf replied, showing some kind of patient experience. _"Learn when your enemy is only antagonizing you."_

"Right. My best option is probably to get out of here."

" _There's an exit that way."_

Then one vampire dropped into his view. This was the other unknown. He was a cat man, with large ears and short ginger-orange fur. In his tail was a double-bladed rune sword. For now, it was loose. "You mortals should not go alone."

" _It's Kiito Bandolier,"_ Xenophon said with worry. " _He was a master spellsword before Star was even born."_ He melded his soul with Zero's, certain the assistance was necessary.

"I can handle you," Zero challenged, although his mind was plotting escape.

"Is that so?"

Kiito flipped his tail, activating a mechanism on his sword. The blades began to spin along a circular track around the tailgrip. Then he crouched down, in a perfect position to spring forward, spin around, and slash Zero to pieces with his spinning blades.

"Still your blades," a familiar voice said behind Zero. "He's mine."

He felt a sensation of fire through his bones and didn't need to look to know it was Omega behind him.

"As you wish, master." Kiito sprung back into the ceiling where he had dropped.

"Now you," the master vampire said, trying to command him as he had tried years ago.

And it still didn't work. Zero ran through the hall. His vision blurred. They've almost got it, he thought. He sent a text message to Ash, "I've been tricked into entering the building. Omega is with me. Go ahead and bring it down."

"Watch yourself," Ash replied. "Don't forget why his body is still around. I don't want to bring you back infected with a new virus."

"I know."

"The building is coming down," Ash then informed everyone on their side. "I can tell we're going to be trapped in Shadow Palace for a bit, but the rest of you should be okay. And someone go assist Zero before he's repossessed."

The halls shuddered and the floor lost its solidness. Zero fell to the ground and rolled forward to spring to a ready position. Right next to him, Omega landed. Zeta and Kiito fell close to them.

"Master Omega, what's happening?" Shabrengo called. He and the other vampires appeared, surrounding Zero.

"All of you, get out of here," Omega replied after glancing at the pale blue sky.

"Master?" Zeta asked, concerned.

"Go! Be hidden by sunlight."

Reluctantly, the other vampires ran into the valley below.

Zero put Zetsabre to his defense. "What do you want with me?"

"I want that other half of my soul back," Omega growled. "You knew you had it all along."

"I don't have any half soul of yours. You were never a complete being."

"That's a lie!" Omega attacked with Firingi.

"Keep his attention on you until dawn," Ash suggested by a transmission. "Hopefully the sunlight should cancel the duel virus curse."

Easy for him to say, Zero thought. He blocked a wild flurry of strikes. He tried to think of another way to beat Omega. What had happened the first time? X had stopped him with Kyrie. Zero didn't know Kyrie, but he knew that spell attacked the spirit and not the body.

With that in mind, Zero dashed back and cast Spirit Blast as quickly as he could. If he could defeat the half-soul and leave the body alone until dawn, that should take care of things. Omega shuddered from the force of Spirit Blast, but soon retaliated with Shadow Flare. Zero deflected most of that spell with Zetsabre, but his left shoulder got burned.

They clashed blades several more times. Zero kept a rune calculation ready to go. When he saw his chance (Omega overswung as Zero side-stepped, giving him an open shot), he attacked with Psyche Smash. It was meant to break an opponent's concentration and will. After using it, he typically used Night Cry to scare the target into submitting or running.

Omega stumbled back and growled. Zero noticed his blue eyes turn to red. "Give me back my soul!"

Then the vampire struck with Bonebreak. It knocked Zero to the ground. Because he knew that sword spell, he had a reduced stun time when hit by it. But he was stunned long enough for Omega to bite him.

He thought about struggling, but felt helpless. Nobody had tried attacking the vampire at this point, Zero recalled from the reports. There was some sort of spell making him numb, although he could feel his life being drained away.

They were hit by a burst of energy. Omega took the brunt of it and rolled several feet away. Zero thought of running. Although he felt numb, he could feel blood coming from the wound. He had to get away. But his body wouldn't listen.

Sigma ran by him and attacked Omega. Dynamo appeared, grabbed Zero, and pulled him back. Soon after, Malcolm teleported in and began spells to seal the wound. They couldn't do anything until he stopped bleeding.

Out of his range of vision, Sigma continued to fight with Omega, but far more aggressively than Zero had been. But looking at the sky, Zero figured dawn couldn't be far off. And the sun would come up suddenly from behind the eastern ridge. The Fire Dragon couldn't escape in his vampire body. At least, Zero hoped he couldn't. He didn't want to spend more time under possession.

As Malcolm was finally able to counter the numbing spell, there was a loud crash from the two fighters. Omega gave a painful scream and was cut short by an extended whine from Sigma's buster. Zero was able to sit up in time to watch as the charged shot blew a hole through Omega's body.

"Oh shoot, now we have to quarantine him," Dynamo muttered.

"Is he dead?" Malcolm asked, not being able to see over there.

"Damn you," Omega said, struggling to stay operating after the damage done to him. "The others… will seek revenge… if mine does not take place."

"My revenge is the one that will be fulfilled," Sigma said in anger, then made sure to finish him off by decapitating him.

"Get away from his body," Dynamo suggested.

"I'm fine," Sigma said. "He isn't sending out a signal, if you'd take the time to notice."

Taking a chance, Zero searched for signals. Nothing came from Omega's body. "You sure? Master Wily was clever with his programming. He's the one that gave computer viruses the ability to evolve in the first place."

"He probably didn't count on him being turned undead," Sigma pointed out. "We'll let the sun finish the destruction. Nothing will happen." Still, he came over to where they were.

Dynamo nodded. "Yeah. Not even Wily could make a virus that could transfer without a communication signal."

Zero still felt uncertain. "I guess not. Thank you for saving me."

"It was nothing. I just hope my mother is okay now." He looked around, his eyes seeming less harsh in his worry.

Recalling what had happened, Zero asked, "Zeta? Omega told her and the others to hide in the valley."

Sigma nodded. "Good. I should be able to find her now."

Xenophon appeared in front of Zero. His aura was faint with exhaustion. " _That was a rough battle. Good job."_

"Are you all right?" Zero asked, letting him land in his hands.

" _Our souls are connected; I received a drain of power as well. I should be fine with a long rest. But what about you now, in forty days?"_

"All I can really do is hope." He looked up at the mountain ridge, where the sun was beginning to appear. "I wish I could speak to X."

The shadow of the mountains slipped down the slope behind them. Despite being headless, Omega's body was stirring, painfully trying to stand up. Malcolm put his hand on Zero's shoulder; fear was still touching the healer. Dynamo and Sigma moved closer to the Master vampire, in case he tried running.

But he was standing up, facing the east, when the sun appeared fully from behind the mountains.

An old memory came to Zero's mind. He wasn't sure why, but he recalled his father. In particular, the time when Forte snuck through his window to visit before Christmas. That was just before he got infected with Pandema. After that illness passed, the Fire Dragon had been no longer able to control him with uncontrolled rages and biting. Something about that memory made him feel safe now, as he watched the Fire Dragon burning.

Burning?

Omega's undead body vaporized under the direct power of sunlight. In its place was the dragon Zero had first seen, both in his visions of the lake of fire and in the battle with the Ice Dragon years ago. This was a dragon of living fire, coiled into a bright bonfire that radiated a strange red light.

Zero felt a sharp pang of worry from Xenophon. " _That is just like the Maverick virus."_

"But I thought the vampires… they aren't like your mavericks?"

" _No, the vampires are something different. This is the aura of the Maverick virus. Are you…? No, you seem safe somehow."_

Zero felt the presence of his father's protection strengthen. He backed up and whispered, "Malcolm, take all the human patients and leave."

"What?"

"Leave right now. Just in case; you could be in danger."

"All right." Malcolm turned to check over the other patients.

Omega uncoiled his body and flew into the sky. He was formed like a snake, with no visible wings. But his body of fire went on and on. A hundred yards and then some. Sigma and Dynamo in front of Zero were standing still, watching the Fire Dragon emerge. But nothing yet.

Nothing at all. Omega flew into a sunbeam and vanished.

"Is he gone?" Dynamo asked.

"I have no idea," Sigma said. "But we need to alert the Field Patrol about his new presence."

"Are they…?" Zero asked Xenophon quietly.

The elf tried to inspect them, but then yawned. _"I can't tell. Not right now."_

"Are you guys all right?" Zero asked.

Waving his hand as if it were nothing, Dynamo was still looking towards the sunrise. "Yeah, just fine. Wonder why he didn't do anything?"

Sigma walked over to Zero. "But you need to take care of yourself, and quickly. Go to a holy place, or somewhere. Make sure your family won't lose you to a vampire."

"Right. I'll do everything I can. But later. I'd best find a place to make a portal to Shadow Palace."

Dynamo looked at him suspiciously. "You're going to make a portal to that accursed place?"

"To get Ash and Sandy out. Will your patrols handle the cleanup and survey?"

Sigma nodded. "Of course. Go on."

"Thank you. Sir." He recalled at last minute that Sigma was a commander, and thus had to be treated as such.

And in a move that Zero would regret for years to come, he left Sigma and the others in order to find Ash and Sandy.


	54. Tell Those You Love...

February 6, XX69

Heaven's Peak

The cold thin air wrapped around him. If his feelings were right, then it was okay. Coming out of his trance, X put his right hand over his eyes. He opened them. There was a green glow on his skin.

"Well?"

"The energy draw from healing has decreased greatly, I feel. And I can keep my magic." He stood up. "I did lost the Resurrection spell, but that's no big loss."

"Good. Here." Enker handed over a pair of skis.

"Skiing?"

"It's the fastest way down the mountain and to North Station. I hope you learn as quickly as you did when you were young."

* * *

"Something has changed," Raitzen said, in the quiet of underground tunnels. Only a few maintenance bots encountered them on this exploration.

Laudo looked at his normally silent brother. "Something?"

He shook his head and shrugged.

As usual. He felt with his third eye, to figure out what was bothering him. "Does it have to do with Sigma and the others? Ever since they got back from that vampire hunting mission, they seem a little… off."

His brother nodded. They had been excused from the mission to take care of things at Ikari Tower. As a number of the Wily reploids had left for various personal reasons, it had been a boring stay. But maybe boring was better than eventful.

"And what's with the guys who came back with them? Boomer and the other Patrolmen? They all feel different. Not like the vampires, but still… I wonder what happened back there."

To his surprise, he was answered. "A cursed virus has been unleashed. That is what I sense."

Laudo squinted. There was a faint form ahead. HIs elder brother held his hand towards the form; from his spell, it took shape. "Quint?" Raitzen asked.

"Raitzen, Laudo." Quint's ghost nodded. "It seems I realized the truth too late. Things became so clear in that moment."

"Are you really our father?" the younger asked. He hadn't fully answered that question yet.

"Yes."

"How did you die? It must have been a formidable enemy."

"I brought this on myself for something greater than myself. Like this cursed virus. If you stay too long, you will become infected as well. It strips one of all moral judgment and encourages violence."

"How can a virus do that? They just make one ill."

"This is not an ordinary virus; it is one of Master Wily's make. Or perhaps, of someone more evil than he. But I don't have time or the knowledge to prepare you further than to warn you away."

"If it changes that much," Raitzen said, "We should go."

Quint nodded. "And this force you are with; don't deny, it is for enslaving the other races of the world. Cut yourself free and learn the reality. I died for a purpose and I hope it is not wasted."

"What purpose is that?" Laudo asked. "We might carry on. Perhaps we don't know you, but as your sons, we have some duty to follow your word."

Raitzen nodded to this.

"There is a man in this range named X Light. He has a power that none other holds. I ask you to meet him at North Station and help him escape. He will seek out some friends after that. Help if you wish, but at least ask him for information on the train. And listen to him. He may be naïve when it comes to battle; I left Enker with him for protection. But I feel he shall make the right decision."

"X Light? The son of your enemy?"

"My old enemy, the one I was forced to hate. My true enemy is X's enemy as well. And he should be yours." His form started fading. "That is all I have the energy to do. I am sorry that I became wise only before I died. Please do not follow my footsteps."

After the ghost moved on into the planet's aura, Laudo turned to his older brother. "Do we go after X?"

Raitzen nodded.

* * *

February 13, XX69

At the edge of the Forbidden Mountains, and out of range of communication blocks, X turned to his escorts, Enker, Raitzen, and Laudo. "I'm going to call the others now. As much as I don't like rushing a battle like this, we may not have time."

"We're lucky to get this far," Enker reminded him.

"Right." X turned on his com unit and called two numbers at once. One connected to Equinox and one to Zero.

Equinox got to him first. "X? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Got rid of the spell and nothing else."

"Thank goodness. It would have been awful for you to lose all you've done."

"Equinox, we don't have much time. Ikari knows I'm alive now."

"Are you safe? I can…"

"I have three guardians right now; I'll be fine for a while. Look, we need to challenge Ikari. Once Zero answers…"

And then Zero got to him. "What the hell were you thinking, running off like that?"

X tried to keep serious, but smiled. "I thought you would tell them."

"I did," Equinox said.

"I'm still mad about it."

"We have to put that aside," Equinox interrupted. "It's Master Domino."

"He will attack us as soon as we meet," X told them. "He…"

"What? But I thought Sigma had control…"

"He doesn't. Quint called me up over a week ago and told me about my father's… well, he told me that Ikari is a Predator who destroys entire universes."

"That's what the whole sacrifice was about," X said. "We were to die and unravel the endurance of this world. But we didn't, and we're all still alive. He will hound us for the rest of our days; it's best that we take him out now."

"All right," Zero said. "But you'd best answer for your behaviors later."

"Where are we going to challenge him?

X thought. "Let's not take him lightly. We should use a ley point."

"A what?"

"A place where the planet's aura flows strong," Equinox interpreted. "And we need somewhere uninhabited."

"I know a place," X said. "Here are the coordinates."

"What should we do to prepare?" Zero asked.

"I don't know," X admitted.

Laudo nudged him. "Only one thing to do. Call one person that you love. Tell them you are headed for a battle of fate and ask them to pray for you. If you don't have time to gain information and protective measures, at least make sure the spirits are with you."

"And tell the others to give us two weeks," Enker added. "There's something you and I need to do."

X nodded and passed that on. They cut the conversation.

"We should do that same," Laudo said. "But… well, I only have my brother here. Everything else of mine has been challenged."

Raitzen took his brother's shoulder. They looked at each other, then stepped aside to talk quietly.

"I'll keep an eye out," Enker said.

"You have no one?"

"I have the dead. And you now. But I'm sure there's another you really want to talk to."

"Right. Your brothers are close to you now." X tapped his conversation crystal. "Dad? We… really need to talk."

* * *

Zero scrambled across camp. "Ash!"

"What?" he asked, partly annoyed that he used an informal name while on duty. But then he saw the look on his face. "Something up?"

"I don't know how to say this. I have to leave, now. And I may never come back."

Sandy dropped the gun he was repairing. "You're ditching? You are ditching?"

"No, no. I have a battle of fate. I can't get out of it, and I…"

"Go on," Ash said.

He paused, stunned. "Go on?"

He waved his hand to say, move on.

Zero sighed. "Thank you so much." He ran off.

Sandy picked up the gun. "What was that about?"

"Before he ran off, X told me that when I next heard the phrase 'battle of fate', I'd better do whatever was asked of me." Ash shook his head. "He also said, the only thing you can do to help is pray for the world and the warriors."

Across the camp, Zero grabbed a hair clip, Zetsabre, and Starchaser. He set off a long distance teleport request. To his surprise, it came back immediately. He accepted and soon found himself on the wall of Monsteropolis.

"State your…" the nearest Guardian said.

He tapped his arm badge. "Field Patrol, emergency." He got on Starchaser and took off into the city. He landed on an apartment balcony and knocked on the sliding door.

Iris opened the door. "Zero? What…?"

He kissed her with a passion he had never felt before.

Then he shook his head. "Sorry. I just…"

She touched his cheek. "What is it?"

Zero looked her in the eye. "We may never see each other again after this."

* * *

When Roll realized what Equinox meant to do, and that X and Zero were joining him, she wept.

He let her cry on his shoulder. Although his eyes were moist, he didn't cry. He knew this was dangerous, beyond a doubt. Also beyond a doubt was that he had to do this. It was like something in his soul had turned on. Either he had to die at the end of the long winter, or he had to bring death to the one who brought the long winter. He was an assassin, and at last he had a target that might be worth the use of his skills.

"I'm sorry mom," he said when her sobs weakened. "I can't back out."

"I'm not your mother," she said, apparently at a loss on how to speak her true feelings.

"You are my mom," Equinox insisted. "Whenever I felt lost, or lonely, or hurt, I always thought of you first for comfort. I got punished for it during that time, but I never stopped thinking of you."

"I never forgot about you either. You stole my heart, like all lost children seem to do. Sometimes I think I should stop that."

"Oh, but we all love you for it. You're wonderful."

"I can be terrible too."

"Don't think that."

"Please promise to come back. All three of you."

Equinox bit his lip. "I… I can't do that. We're facing someone who kills billions, or even trillions of people without a touch of remorse. I can promise you, and will, that I will do everything I can to make sure this world continues. There will be more children, and they'll all love you too."

Roll started to say something, then let it go with a sigh. "I should stop loving the warriors for my own sake. But I'm sure you need a peaceful voice in your world too." She kissed his forehead. "My son, be careful. And tell that to my other two kids."

"I will."

* * *

"I'm in Alexandria, visiting Blues and his wife," Rock said. "But I can spare some time."

Blues had married two years ago. X wondered for a moment if Blues had really settled down or if he still prowled the wilderness, just in one spot. "How are they?"

"Doing just fine. They're expecting a son soon."

"Really?"

"Yeah. They're naming him after our father; although it sounds like you called for some other reason."

"I did. Dad…"

"What is it?" His voice was filled with concern.

"I'm sorry I ran off without warning. I wish I had told you what was going on. I need to stop relying only on myself."

"It's fine, I heard about it from Equinox. Are you okay? He said that you were willing to give up all magic to lose this one spell."

"I didn't have to. I only lost the Resurrection spell and the healing handicap it forced on me. I guess mortals are not to tamper with death."

"I think you did the right thing. But you should have told us."

"Would you have come with me?"

"Into the Forbidden Mountains? Certainly."

"Thanks."

"Are you headed back home?"

"No, there's something more important to take care of. Listen: what I'm going to tell you is true in every way."

X explained about the Universal Predator and their upcoming battle.

* * *

X followed Enker across the icy field. He was observing the lay of the land. There were shallow dips and hills, but otherwise it was mostly flat. "This is an excellent choice. Since we cannot take him by surprise, best take a neutral ground."

"What do you have in mind for the next two weeks? Some preparations to place the battle in our favor?"

In response, Enker summoned his spear and activated his armor. "Draw your weapon."

X felt part shock and part fear. Was he finally turning on him? It had been a fear in the back of his mind, but he had hoped being freed would change him enough too. They were alone. "B-but…"

"You're a scholar. As you are now, you won't last a single minute against me. Three of us went against Ikari and utterly failed to do much more than minor damage. I have two weeks to turn you into a warrior who will be facing Ikari."

His power system was still at a rapid pace, but his body seemed frozen.

Enker dashed over and tapped X's helmet helmet. "That is not enough time, I am not your ideal teacher, and you are hardly the perfect candidate. Your heritage means nothing to me at this moment. But some strange fortune has given you the power that can stop Ikari Domino. This will be rough, but it will at least prepare you for what is to come."

Reluctant still, X activated his buster. It was now a full weapon, although he wasn't sure what it was capable of. "All right, Enker. I'll work on it."

"You will call me master."

* * *

February 16

outside Odessa

X was making supper and keeping an eye on Enker. He tried to be natural about it, to seem as if he wasn't watching when he was (his master would know, he was sure). But that was a slippery skill to learn. Enker would attack him at any opportunity, but if he messed up supper he would be scolded.

Just three days, that's all he had been through. yet it seemed like so much longer. He wasn't allowed a break because he was never sure when something would happen. If he wanted to keep up with his daily prayers, he had to stay alert to what was around him while doing so. And X often found himself struggling more not against Enker, but against his own memories. It had been tolerable when Enker and Quint had been his guardians, defending him on his quest. But once Enker became the opponent, even as a teacher, it became apparent that his old scars could still bleed again.

"What do you remember of Ikari?" Enker asked.

There was a moment where he really did not want to answer. He felt compelled to, though. "He was terrifying. He was calm most of the time; I can remember slapping him once." X looked over his hand. "I was six months old. I knew something was wrong with him. He made my skin feel strange. But it was worse later on when I was three and he was guiding me through the sacrifice every day. I can't recall him ever actually being emotional and being around him for any length of time was draining."

"I mean to have you realize that if he would do that to you, he would have no hesitation to do the same to another child."

X looked over at him. "Master? But I… I was special in a terrible way."

"You were because you fit with his plans. Because he manipulated every step of your development to be his sacrifice. He put hundreds of thousands of hours into making and then breaking you. Yet you defied him and his goal still taunts him. He could choose another child and do even worse to ensure that the next sacrifice does not defy him. He could destroy another family in order to destroy the world. And he will do so, if you do not stop him."

"I see."

Enker stirred the fire to keep it going. "People like him and Albert Wily are not like you and I. They do not see beyond themselves. They see other beings as things to be used, not as other people. Wily called his children weapons, and that's what we are meant to be. I was made only to destroy and to kill. I was born only so that others would die. But my brothers and I saw the world for what it was: a collection of beings that must cooperate, not just to survive, but also to thrive.

"We see the miracle of a newborn child, the beauty of compassion and love. We see what can and should be done, although we were restrained in doing so. And yet the tyrants, the predators, they see nothing of that. They see someone like you and only see a means to a violent end. They see someone like that new cousin of yours,"

"Thomas."

"A child like Thomas, not yet born, and only see a potential threat. Or maybe even just a number in population statistics. They do not care about anything beyond power. These are the ones that heroes must get rid of, so that the innocents like Thomas can live in peace and happiness. Heroes like your father, and perhaps you."

"I don't think I could ever be as great as he is."

"I think otherwise. If you put your heart and mind into it, you could surpass him by far."

* * *

_written by Laudo_

Back at Odessa, we came to quiet.

A rustle of ice ladened grass,

A rattle of abandoned homes,

And an owl calling out.

This was what remained.

I once saw X as myself

A calm follower of White,

A heart seeking peace,

And one fearing war.

This was his soul.

There he lay on a cot.

Exhausted from training,

Two weeks to learn battle,

To forget what he knew

Of peace and charity.

He slept on not noticing us.

There was the Rock Killer.

Sitting at the door,

Ensuring his student's safety.

Greeting us with a nod,

He allowed us in.

Openly, seeking honesty,

I asked him a question.

What did he seek of this?

I knew of his brothers.

But what did he hope for?

As in his ways,

Odd to me,

Odd to my brother,

He paused for a minute,

Then spoke in sincerity.

"I should like to follow

X back to his home.

I shall go to my enemy,

The one I was to kill,

And I shall speak to him.

"I shall say,

'Here is your son,

Once meek and soft

And fearful of much.

I trained him.

"'I had little time,

But I steadied his hand

I made his mind ready

I made his heart ready

To turn from his passive path.

"'He is not as you knew.

He is far greater than us.

When once years ago,

He needed courage

Simply to live.'"

"Will you be able

To do as you wish?"

I asked ill at ease.

The day of concern,

Too close for my comfort.

"We must believe so,"

Enker replied,

Clasping together

His toughened hands.

"Otherwise, it will not be."

"What will you ask

In exchange for training X?"

I asked, curious to see

What this warrior would want.

His answer was honest

I could see by his eyes.

"Only his forgiveness.

I have caused them pain,

Well beyond what a true hero deserves."

"You see them as heroes?"

"Of the purest kind."


	55. ...That You Love Them

February 27, XX69

Odessa

Zero appeared in a prairie. There was a road under his feet with a light dusting of snow. Waves of tan grass spreading out to every horizon. Except just ahead, where an abandoned town lay. It was small and had been long lost, but the buildings and statues still stood. In good condition for all the abusive years, a sign carved from granite announced the place. "Odessa, huh?"

X nodded. "This is a holy site. Pilgrims would come from all parts of the globe to see what was here. What is still here. But I came for Jando Greensward."

"Sandy's father?" Equinox asked.

"He set out to save his family and friends, not thinking he might save the world while doing so. We know where he erred. And yet I think, for his memory, the true battle should come back here."

Zero looked around. The town didn't look all that important. "What is holy about this place?"

"A crossing of ley lines; a focus of the Nature ring." He pointed to the center of town. "See that bush? According to records, it has lived over twenty-five hundred years."

"It might die in a battle like this."

"If we die, it will. If we win, it may just live another twenty-five hundred years."

"And you're late, Zero," Equinox teased. In truth, he was nervous and trying to ease himself. This was very important, he had to be calm… and for that reason, it was tempting to panic. He once hoped to never kill again, and now he had to without the mental whipping of the golden eye. He thought of Roll and how he needed to return to her and tell her things were safe.

Zero rolled his eyes. "I restrained myself. I could have stayed much longer with her if she wanted me to. But I made her see why this was so important." He could still smell her raspberry scented hair conditioner and his power core felt warmer than usual. It had been so tempting to remain with Iris and forget about this, at least for a little while. But he knew he was the only one of the three who had a girlfriend, and thus restrained his desires. He felt that so long as he smelled raspberries, he would remember that he had to go back to her.

X looked at the ancient bush. Even as the focus wasn't of his ring, he would like to go to it in peace and meditate. When talking to his father earlier today, he heard tones of worry in Rock's voice. But he knew how these things had to go. He had told X of things they had never discussed before, of preparing mentally and spiritually for battle. "You must know that you can die any time you face an enemy," Rock had said. "But you must also know that evil minds like Domino's do not care about the suffering they inflict. You know what he did to you; remember that he can and will inflict the same suffering on another child if you do not stop him." The same advice Enker had given him.

He thought of that, and of his new cousin Thomas. Someone had to make sure that child lived in peace. In fact, many people were required to give peace to the children. Even musing on this thought, he still noticed the shift in aura. "It is time. Ikari Domino!"

The colorless Predator appeared before them as he had to Ballade one unlucky time. He wore only black pants. Black wings beat strangely slow to keep him aloft. His thin white hair fluttered with his wings, as if they were wings as well. And he carried the crooked black staff with the crystal statue.

Speaking in tones far colder than the Ice Dragon ever had been, he greeted them with, "You are late coming to your sacrifice. You have ruined things."

Enker brought his spear to ready. "You are the one who has ruined things."

Zero activated Zetsabre and got ready. Equinox moved closer to X, to protect him. To the side, Raitzen did the same for his brother Laudo. Ikari cast a red wave of energy from his body and thus it began.

X nullified the red wave. Enker dashed in to strike with his spear. Knowing his uncle's strategies, Equinox readied a defense-cutting arrow and fired it right as Enker stepped back. Zero struck right after the arrow. Ikari blocked Enker's hit, got hit by the arrow, and blocked Zero's hit. He then hit Enker and Zero with a phantom pain spell.

Casting as fast as he could, Laudo revoked the phantom pain spell, allowing the two warriors to carry on. Raitzen had tried to cast Slow on Ikari. Since it failed to make any effect, he cast Quick on Enker, then started on Zero. Ikari created a shield of spikes around himself, then made the shield rotate. With that, he rushed at X. Equinox held back on an arrow to cast MetaGuard. Laudo healed what damage X took, while X cast Lunar Ray.

The battle was chaotic for some time. Then the group began to figure out how they worked together. Enker and Zero took turns doing close-range damage. Equinox guarded X and fired spell arrows when opportunities arose. Raitzen guarded Laudo, although if Ikari got quickly out of range, he would fire off hefty battle spells. Laudo healed and uncursed as needed. X used White attack magic, trying out elements until he found good spells to damage Ikari with. He only paused once, to undo a curse on Raitzen that Laudo was unable to handle.

But Ikari managed to keep up with them, even after Raitzen altered time for Enker, Zero, and Equinox. Very little could interrupt his spells, since he cast so quickly. He used the spike shield and dash technique several times; no matter how they tried, someone got hit badly every time. And then Raitzen got hit hard enough with the spike shield and some kind of black spear that he must have gotten killed instantly. Laudo dropped down to try to heal him, then screamed in a fury and brought out a handgun to try joining the fight that way. Ineffectively, though.

This couldn't work in the end, X thought. The close range fighters would tire out physically, while the mages would tire out mentally and physically. And while Ikari did bruise, he didn't bleed. He also didn't slow, indicating that they probably had a long ways to go in defeating him.

But that statuette on top of the staff… was it mere symbol or did it contribute to his power? X prepared the spell Blessing of the Sun to cast on Zero. As he did so, he shouted, "Black angel!"

Zero took the hint and used the blessing to enhance Sunstrike to destroy the statuette of the Universal Predator. It shattered immediately.

But something about it felt strange. X thought that with the breaking of the Universal Predator, he would be relieved of the burden of Ikari's scheme to destroy the world. But it felt like nothing had changed.

Ikari's wings vanished and he dropped to the ground. He cussed in a fury as he grasped his staff for support. And then his features changed. It was not Ikari before them, but Punk.

Enker stepped towards him. "Brother?"

"Piss off, you lousy fool."

"You took the temptation," X said. He glanced over as he saw Laudo coming over to him and Equinox. He was trembling, likely to become reckless again.

"Why?" Enker asked.

Punk glared at them. "I realized what I was. And I'm damn proud of it. We were made to be the ultimate destroyers, Enker. Why don't you accept your destiny?"

"It is a false destiny. A wrong path. Besides, I have no wish to dishonor the memories of Ballade and Quint." Enker glared back at Punk, accusations in his eyes.

"They were blind, to ignore their true potential. You should not fall for the same trap." Punk stood up. "Besides, I have hardly begun and you already tire. This loss will not hurt me. Now see…" he paused. His eyes focused inward. "What the hell?"

"Punk," Ikari said.

He was standing to Punk's right, where he had not been before. His wings were folded back casually and he held his staff loose. Seeing them side-by-side, one could tell that Punk's color was returning.

"What is it, father?"

"Your performance was terrible."

Punk seemed surprised. "But I did as you trained me to."

"You do not understand. I asked you if you did and you lied."

"I do understand."

"You don't." Ikari spun his staff around and smashed his statuette into a rock. However, not a chip or crack appeared. "You don't understand this at all. You are not what I was looking for in my children."

"I can still…"

He brought his staff to point at Punk. "You have proven worthless." He touched him on the forehead with the angel's scythe.

Punk's soul was shattered, and thus he died.

"You've destroyed another one of your children," X said, appalled at the thought.

"There's no problem with taking out a failure."

"How can you say that so calmly? You devil." Zero gripped the handle of Zetsabre, feeling furious. Maybe Punk wasn't a great person, but he was still a person.

"I'm not sure you could understand," Ikari answered. "I'm a Predator. I seek my Prey. It matters not how I kill, so long as the deviant Universe dies. In fact, I am leaving."

"You are not!" Equinox shouted, furious once again. "For my father's sake, I will see to your demise."

"I am leaving," he repeated, blocking out what attacks they tried. "This world has proven much too resilient. There are many weaker worlds that will satisfy me. At least, until the sickness I have sown here spreads." He smiled, baring his teeth. "I will leave the seeds of destruction to blossom. War of the like this world has never seen will emerge. You will taste the first fruits of my labor shortly."

" _War like the ones that destroyed my world?"_ Xenophon asked.

"Yes. War like that. I had a hand in that, don't you recall? Even your home was a pathetic shadow."

" _I do remember. And I won't stand to see it happen again!"_

Ikari kept smiling.

But then X's vision was filled with a brilliant white light. He squinted. To his right were footsteps. He turned, but couldn't make out the form. He could make out a voice. "I am sick of wars. I cannot let this happen again."

"Xenophon?" Then he thought better of it. "Master X?"

He felt a soul touch him. "Remember the visions of the destroyed worlds that you told me of, last we met. In another world, you were convinced that a crystal sphere would save your world."

"But those Possibility Spheres only exist in a time loop. There's no way to take them out into normal time."

"Outside into normal time? So there exists an outside of time?"

"There is no spell formula…"

His lips were touched for silence. "I am sick of war. I have lived much too long. I give myself… all of myself… to find the formula to banish a Universal Predator to outside of Time and Space."

The formula came to X's mind. Unlike the simple spells that he preferred for reliability, this spell was massive. And complex. He should write it down and test out the parts. He should analyze the relationships and make sure they were balanced. He should study…

No. If Xenophon was sacrificing himself, following the deaths of those already killed by Domino… and that was an inconceivable number, more than every grain of sand on every beach in his world. If all those deaths hung in the balance, if all those ghosts needed settling, X had to act now and think later.

His elder soul from another world clasped his right hand. "You do not have the power. But the combined souls of his victims, they do. Banish him."

X started the calculation. He could faintly sense the others by him, defending him again. Then he found his first problem, a number he wasn't sure about.

"It is 1004," the soul of Punk whispered to him.

As other numbers nearly stopped him, some soul told him. The spell began to drain his body. The souls latched onto him. X ignored the discomfort and kept calculating. He finished, and the answer was clear. Daunting, unimaginable: the aura needed for the spell matched every soul that had died because of Ikari's influence.

X cast…

* * *

At Xenophon's remark, Ikari just smiled. "X, it doesn't matter where I go; you seem to have the same soft heart and it's always your downfall."

Neko landed of Zero's shoulder. _"Huh? What happened?"_

What the…? "Neko? But you…?"

" _You understand me?"_

Zero nodded while keeping an eye on Ikari.

" _He swapped us? But why?"_

"Some brave but foolish plan little fairy, no doubt," Ikari answered. "Fine, I'll wait long enough to see what he has in mind. It could be interesting."

"Shut up," Zero said. He dashed forward to strike Ikari. No sword spell for now; he just wanted to see a straight hit. Enker moved in as well; they went for a duel strike they had done on Punk not that long ago

Ikari blocked them both easily with his staff. They got caught in opposition, blades on staff. The Predator didn't seem bothered, but Zero and Enker found themselves straining against him. Then Ikari pushed them. Not even a proper strike, just a shove with his staff. Zero and Enker were thrown back several feet, onto the ground.

"Punk had no idea what our true power is," Ikari explained. He brushed his hand away, seeming to leave little black letters flying. Enker collapsed suddenly. "This world can be edited."

Equinox brought out his father's spellbow and took aim. While Zero attempted to take Ikari on again, Laudo cast the strongest White spell he knew. Yet Holy got blocked, something he had never seen done before. When the arrow flew, Ikari caught it in a graceful motion.

"It seems none of you realize it." He threw the arrow back. Equinox didn't expect it to be at full power when thrown, but it was. His own Earth Fist arrow caused his armor to throb and him to fall back to his knees.

Zero was frustrated. Here they were trying as hard as they could, and Ikari was playing with them, like a cat pawing an already trapped mouse. He glanced to X; he was lost in his casting, his glowing eyes focused within rather than without.

"What are you?" Equinox asked. "And who made a monster like you?"

"You know what I am, although you don't understand. As for who made me, I can't answer that. The answer wouldn't make sense on your world."

"Are you so sure?" Zero challenged. Maybe if they kept Ikari from recognizing whatever spell X and Xenophon had going…

Ikari began swinging his staff. "All right, if you want to try. I was made to destroy universes. Get rid of the weak, the illogical, the unfit: those not the original. But I was made in an illogical universe, one seemingly bred to live off crack. You think Shadow Palace is Chaotic, but that place is stable compared to my birthplace. And so I destroyed it, then set out to destroy similar places. These diseased subworlds, these incomplete mirrors, they weaken the original and make it foolish. But if the disease is fully eradicated, the Capcom original will be strong once again."

"The what original?" Equinox asked.

"You're not even supposed to exist, nor know anything about it; neither am I, I suppose, but at least I'm doing something about it."

"How do you know it's the right thing to do? It seems like the wrong thing."

He shrugged. "I have the power to do so. Therefore, it must be right."

"That's illogical," Laudo said. "Our world is not."

"It is logical. Here, watch." He waved his hand and Odessa vanished.

They found themselves standing on thin air far above an alien world. Ikari was before them, but a still version of him was far to the left. The world below looked in bad shape. The surface was scarred by explosions and the air filled with grit and grime. There was an inhabited area, but it was made of shacks and lean-tos.

"This is world RS-629b," Ikari explained. "I found it like this. The so-called civilization below had blown the surface of their planet to smithereens, then complained about their poor quality of life. Idiots of the highest degree. They had to go."

"What does this have to do with our world?" Laudo asked.

"I only scattered seeds. Your world will breed destruction from them. It never fails to happen. Your world will come to this, so watch." He flicked his fingers towards his past self, allowing time to move.

The past Ikari looked the same as the present one, black wings, staff, and alien colorlessness. As the statue turned orange, he brought the staff to a ready position. He was casting something that took him time. When the statue turned red, Ikari swung the staff downward and fired.

A laser thin beam of red light shot from the staff to the planet. Once it connected, the beam expanded in width and split into separate parts. The people of the shack town below were puzzled by the beam and frightened of the black winged Angel of Death. The statue turned violet.

Swiftly, Ikari yanked his staff backwards. The world below exploded in a blur of dust and debris. The witnesses were puzzled until they noticed what was on the other end of the beam of light. Ikari had yanked the planet's core right out, as if pulling a bad tooth.

Once he had the core, he connected his aura to it. "The next part takes a long while," Ikari said, lacking any remorse for the ruined civilization of RS-629b. "Draining the world of power, and through that destroying the universe around it. Universes are surprisingly small, one comes to find out. Often it's only one world, or planetary system, with stars as mere decoration." He waved his hands and put them back in Odessa.

" _You're heartless evil,"_ Neko said. For a moment, Zero was tempted to go into a blind fury of strikes against Domino.

"I'm nothing more than a Predator. Do you fault a cat for killing mice? Perhaps since you are the mouse, you see me as evil. I've come to realize that I'm only the natural result of the proliferation of universes with disease."

"Then you're not even an animal to be respected," Zero said. "You're a monster that must be destroyed."

"Monsters are relative. I'm sure others see you as the monster too. By the way, shouldn't he have cast by now? You're trying my patience. The only reason you've lived is because you entertain and challenge me. But if you start to bore me, that's it. You're toast."

"So you'll kill him without knowing what spell he's using?"

Zero gave him a look, but Equinox seemed to be confident.

Ikari put his hand to his cheek. "You're right, it does make me wonder what they're up to. I've seen so many methods of heroes trying to kill me. It's a hopeless task, more fun for me. That won't stop me from killing you to pass time. Or using torture. That passes much more time."

X cast by clapping his hands together.

"Finally. What is it this time? Unbreakable swords or unstoppable force? Or maybe the guaranteed kill. I've seen that one so many times."

"It's a spell that's affecting the world," Laudo said, pointed to behind Ikari.

"The world, is it?" Ikari looked back.

There was a swirl of black and red gathering near the ground. It gained strength and size quickly. And then there was the sound. Zero was reminded of the time X was put in with the Paranoid Mirror, a scream of pure fear and suffering. Only this was multiplied ten thousand times. Or maybe more, and that was all he could comprehend of it.

"You've opened a portal to Hell," Ikari stated. "Intriguing. Did you know on other worlds, a white wizard couldn't even think of casting a spell like this? Magic is limitless; understanding impairs it."

"I've never heard of a spell opening that sort of portal," Laudo said.

"Yet it follows your laws. Hmm… I might keep this around for study."

"The souls you have killed remember," X said. His voice sounded strange, as if coming from a bad com link.

"That's nice." A speck of light appeared and rammed into Ikari. But as a single speck of light, it did nothing. He smirked. "You spent all that time casting that? Pitiful."

"That is but one soul. The rest… come." He held his hands out. "The rest are like every grain of sand at every beach and desert of the world. Only, more."

And all those souls appeared, as tiny specks of light, no larger than a grain of sand. But there were trillions of trillions. Or more. Zero couldn't think in terms of numbers that high. The light grew blinding and swallowed Ikari whole.

At X's command, all the soul specks cast Ikari into the Hell portal. With that done, the portal shut tight. The specks all fled, back to the worlds they had fled to when their own had been destroyed. Zero finally felt released from the fate the Universal Predator had chained to him.

"And that's the end of that!" Equinox called out. "My father and our father… and all the other ghosts, they can be at peace."

"Everyone can be at peace," Zero said. "Right X? X?"

But he wasn't right behind them, where he had been.

"X!" Equinox called. "Geez, will you stop running off at the strangest times?"

"I think I know…" Zero ran off down the street.

"Where?"

"That ancient bush."

"Right. He kept wanting to go see it while we were waiting on you."

Laudo followed them. "What happened to X?" Laudo called out. "I saw him right there until the specks of light left."

"Did you see him run off?" Equinox asked, glancing over.

Laudo shook his head. "He just vanished. But, that was something amazing. All the souls that perished in all the places he destroyed, or tried to…"

Zero ran on to the Nature ring focus. When he got there, he saw something else amazing. The bush was blossoming early. Filling the air with a spicy scent were hundreds of small orange flowers. They contrasted the light snow and were made bright by dark green leaves and brown-black branches. And X was here.

X was on the ground, curled up in a ball.

He touched his cousin's upper arm, but got no response. "X? Wake up."

* * *

Something was wrong.

X felt free. The fate that was chosen for him, gone. The sacrifice he had been groomed for, dispelled. The monster that was ultimately responsible for his suffering, banished. And never to return. This world, and hopefully others, was safe from the Predator. He should be overwhelmed with joy and relief.

But X felt that something was wrong yet.

He opened his eyes to the inside of a repair pod. He closed them, and when he looked next, he was lying on a bed. Overhead, thin curtains billowed in a breeze. A ray of sunlight came through. Dawn or dusk? The sunray found the aura of a holy elf and scattered into rainbows. Neko descended and landed on X's forehead.

He asked something. His speech came across as clear little bells.

But I know Elf, X thought. And we are bonded.

He understood nothing.

* * *

Equinox and Laudo took the bodies of Enker and Raitzen to be prepared for funeral rites. Zero took X to the hospital at Fort Cerise. Anxious to know what happened, he watched them hook him up to the analysis computer. X didn't make a move.

After several minutes of studying the output, the doctor said, "He's gone into a critical state shutdown, but there's no apparent injury that great. This will take deeper study; we'll observe him for twenty-four hours and see if he revives."

Zero nodded. If a reploid's body were damaged enough, his or her mind would shut down temporarily, conserving as much power as possible. In a worst-case scenario, all power would be halted, except a miniscule amount required to upkeep memory and broadcast a weak distress signal. The ideal was for the victim to be discovered soon enough to repair, although if left alone long enough, the shutdown would result in unrecoverable death.

But why had X gone into CSS? He did have some injuries, but nothing apparently that bad. Then again, that spell must have taken a lot of energy to cast.

Then the doctor surprised him. "Does this have something to do with the attack on your family?'

"What attack? We were involved in a battle near Odessa."

"I heard there was an attack on your family's home in Monsteropolis and Alexandria. I'm pretty sure that Rock got killed, but I can't recall how the others fared."

His throat clenched up and his systems went cold. "Will you watch X? I'd better go to Monsteropolis."

"We'll take good care of him."

"Thanks." He ran off to see about getting another teleport.

When he got to Monsteropolis, he ran into Equinox. His brother was distressed. "Zero!"

"What's happened? I heard Rock might be dead."

He closed his eyes. "Th… they're all dead. Sigma came here and said they were helping the humans keep our race restrained. And he just killed them all for that."

* * *

Except he didn't exactly kill them all. In Alexandria, the nurse reploid led Zero to a secured room. This was where they performed pre-birth tests on reploid infants, to make sure their bodies were right. And in one cleared capsule lay a little boy.

"They named him Thomas," she said. "After your grandfather, of course. We were just about to call them to say we were ready for the transfer. There was no way to save her; however, the child's mind is still healthy and whole."

"Can you hold off on his birth?"

She shook her head. "Not at this point. His mind is too developed. Once he was cut off, he was ready to become alive. We have to transfer him within the hour, or lose him completely. Since we don't know what Blues and Flora wanted, his custody falls to his oldest living relative."

"X. He can't come right now; he's in CSS."

"Are you able to take care of him?"

Zero looked at Thomas for a moment. "I'm not sure. But I think I can find help."

* * *

March 19, XX69

Light family residence, Monsteropolis

Dawn was a beautiful thing. Especially when one had to worry all night about possibly turning undead. But Zero stood on a balcony and watched the sun rise. The beams did not destroy his skin and he felt no desire to destroy life.

He heard a knock. "Come in," he called. "It's safe."

Iris came out on the balcony and put her arm around him. "Good morning."

"Good morning." He put his arm around her so she could be closer. "That's it, I hope. No new vampires from Omega's line, unless one of the others has become a master."

"I'm just glad you're still here."

"I'm glad the world's still here."

They stood together quietly for a moment. Then Iris asked, "Are you joining us for breakfast?"

"Yes."

Zero and Iris left the room of the east wing that had been chosen. It had been specially treated with blessings and crests to ward off evil, although nothing was truly proven. Until they knew what actually caused the reploids to become undead, nothing was proven effective in preventing the change. They went back into the main house they now shared, with each other, Thomas, and X.

X was not well. But the hospital needed every repair pod they could spare, thus he had to leave. He was unresponsive, within one of the Light lab's pods. He was unable to do anything on his own, and so he had to stay protected. The doctors said that he seemed to be repairing himself. But no one had any idea how long he would stay in this vegetative coma.

Zero's young cousin Thomas was an orphan now, right as he was born. As his closest adult relative, Zero took him in and Iris helped. They thought occasionally of getting married. But if that was to happen, they both wanted X to be there.

But X never responded, to anything.

Zero remembered something X had said. "You wouldn't understand, not unless you had to take care of me like I took care of you." That was explaining why he felt strange about Zero growing up.

Now Zero was doing exactly that, and it felt strange.


	56. Many Years Later

July XX99

Next time he was aware, X was in a wheelchair overlooking a forested valley. Where was this? Did he know?

There were footsteps to his right. He turned his head. His body felt disconnected, but he managed this. Neko appeared again, landing on his arm. Then Zero pulled over a chair and sat by him.

Why can't I feel anything from either of you? This thought was strong, but X couldn't do anything with it.

Zero touched X's chin and saw his eyes move. "Have you come back?"

X tried to respond, but only managed to move his right arm and displace Neko for a moment. The elf jingled, then landed on him again.

"I think you are. You banished Ikari Domino from our world. At least a dozen oracles say you banished him to hell, so it could be so. But whatever spell you and Xenophon came up with," Zero shook his head. "You nearly killed yourself casting it. Xenophon died."

Neko chimed sadly. But then he added some quick bird-like chirps.

"You need to know what happened. You destroyed your mind opening that portal and guiding all those souls."

But I still think… X then considered that maybe he wasn't thinking as well as usual. For one, he couldn't understand Neko. For another… he wasn't able to come up with another.

"Your mind is repairing itself, thank goodness. You'll regain control of your body in some time. I hope not too long from now. When you recover, hope for the rest of us will be restored. And we need that now. Even if you don't want to fight…"

Neko said something.

"Right, I'm getting ahead of myself. X… I don't want to be the one to tell you this. But it has to be said." Zero tried to gather his thoughts, but then took an item out of his pocket and put it in X's hand.

It was a connection crystal; a match to the one X wore behind his ear.

Tears came from X's eyes.

"Sigma got him." Zero punched the arm of his chair and cussed. "Sorry, didn't mean for you to hear that. But I saw… I saw Sigma destroy Omega, and then believed his lies that nothing had happened. I saw it. I felt the evil aura, and Xenophon even said it felt like evil. I knew and I walked away. I can't believe I was so stupid. We got back from fighting Ikari and Sigma had killed Rock. And Blues."

X looked at Zero.

"He just walked into the home. Shot Rock in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Blues fought him…" Zero sniffed and rubbed his eyes. "You know how he used to boast that he never truly lost an honest fight. He lost this one and died for it. So did his wife. His son Thomas, well, he's an adult now. I had to raise him."

With some effort, X managed to curl his fingers. Zero took his hand.

"And my mom… Solstice was with her. She tried to protect her. Sol's dead too, but not from that… there was nothing that could be done."

Who else? How long had he been unaware? Who else was gone now?

"Please come back to us, X," Zero pleaded. "Sigma's become this monster and there's strange new curses in the world. The Fire Dragon waits for his eternal summer. I'm doing everything I can to help, trying to remain strong, but it's overwhelming.

"Enker and Laudo told everyone the truth of what happened. Everyone knows that you banished Domino and you transformed the Ice Dragon. I know you'll hate this, but you must recover and at least give everyone hope. That will change things. But because everyone knows, I got drafted into a more important position. I'm trying to keep everyone from despair. And the others, but there's only so much they can do.

"But we've lost so much. And then you… they had to pull you out of the hospital. There's too many wounded and dying, and you were mostly stable. Iris and I have been taking care of you. If it wasn't for her, I don't know how I'd manage this, trying to give everyone hope while I've had to work out my own feelings of losing my mother and uncles. Iris has been wonderful."

Zero sighed and hugged X.

"But you're my soul brother. You know my weaknesses and my heart. I need you back. Please be back, X."

* * *

"I've written some things for you to say," Lulani said. He handed the papers over.

X walked slowly, not quite back to normal. He scanned the speech and made sure he understood it. "All right."

"It may be some time before your mind is fully healed," Iris said. "Please be careful."

"I will."

Leave one burden behind, take up another, X thought. That's how his life always seemed. Then again, seeing everyone brighten with joy and hope just at the fact that he was walking and talking again, that was a pure happiness. And hearing of the crowd waiting, anxious to see that he really was alive, that was encouraging in a way few sounds were. Perhaps this would draw Sigma's attention, which would unavoidably make things harder on him. But he would do it. It was the right thing.

He and his escorts met up with Zero. Radically different from his pleading and weeping earlier, he was stoic and seemingly cold. He held himself with a confidence that was reassuring to any on his side. But there was a small smile that briefly betrayed the child that X had once been threatened with death to care for.

"We're clear," he said with authority. "So long as you're up to this."

"I'm fine."

Zero looked right at his eyes. "What are you thinking?"

His friend would notice. "I am thinking… the words of my father will haunt me for the rest of my life."

* * *

"I've had my heart broken in so many ways, usually when I least expected it," Rock said. "I've seen brave men who deserve the title more than myself die and never be recognized. I've attracted so many curses and monsters, and enemies, and responsibilities. But it's the right thing. I feel happy when another is safe due to my actions. And the rare rewards that I have received are far more valuable than any worldly treasure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all. Thank you for reading!


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